


Civil War in Cold Winter

by n_j_m00



Series: YUNLIAS CONTENT [1]
Category: The Other Side Animatic, The Other Side Animatic - emilyamiao
Genre: 1990s, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Angst and Feels, Attempt at Humor, Bisexual Character, Blood and Violence, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Cliché Romantic Tropes, Daddy Issues, Demisexual Character, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Families of Choice, Fantasy, Fluff, Friendship, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Internalized Homophobia (kinda), M/M, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, Pansexual Character, Political Drama, Sexual Tension, this is literally based off a 3 min vid idk what im doing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:33:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 31,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26911459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/n_j_m00/pseuds/n_j_m00
Summary: Civil tensions are rising in Anwei and associates to the old crown are being hunted down and taken to Death's doorstep. Following these events, prodigious swordsman Elias Everstied is on the run from the law when he is brought in by an unlikely ally with a silver tongue and golden eyes.They say making a deal with the Devil always lead to one's downfall and Elias knows he will experience that first-hand if he takes the other's hand.(He takes it anyway.)
Relationships: Celine/Mia, Elias/Yun
Series: YUNLIAS CONTENT [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1980652
Comments: 50
Kudos: 99





	1. Take You to the Other Side

**Author's Note:**

  * For [emilyamiao](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=emilyamiao).



> heads-up: the characters and the overall plot belong to the artist, @emilyamiao (insta acc), but the fantasy elements/world-building are ideas that I myself have come up with so please don't take credit for them (•́へ•́╬)
> 
> I'm working with the information provided by the artist but the information available isn't enough for me to understand what kind of world this story takes place in and how Elias and Yun's dynamics/potential relationship will turn out to be like so I'm filling up the plot holes with my own ideas 😅
> 
> Hope you enjoy this fic anyway!

The soft susurration of dried leaves sounded in the clearing. It alerted Elias of another presence and he leapt to his feet, hand poised over the hilt of the dagger strapped around his waist. His steely eyes narrowed in the direction of the trees, pupils adjusting to the darkness of twilight as he tried to make out the silhouette in the distance.

"Who's there?" he demanded, fearing that they had sent more guards after him.

He didn't know what to expect anymore, considering that this morning, he had been released from his prison cell by a guard who did not entertain his questions and merely let him go without a word. If this was some kind of sick twisted game, he was going to lose it.

His sharp hearing picked up a throaty chuckle as the silhouette stepped out of the shadows and into the light of his camp-fire, revealing the handsome profile of a statuesque girl. Elias stifled a gasp at the sight of fresh sanguine blood splattered on her ripped clothing whilst the girl regarded him with a twinkle of mirth in her gunmetal eyes, clearly unfazed by her own state of attire.

Flyaway brown hair framed her heart-shaped face in stringy locks that stopped at her shoulder line and the blood-smeared halter top she was wearing revealed the cords of wiry muscles twining her arms. Her lax stance exuded easy confidence as she appraised Elias from head to toe in a manner that was neither suggestive nor appreciative. She was sizing him up; evaluating if he was worth expending energy on.

Whoever she was, she made it pretty clear that she was strong enough to pose as a threat and confident enough to not see him as one since her eyes lost their calculating gleam.

"Scared of a little blood, pretty boy?" she said with a teasing lilt, her contralto voice sounding strangely pleasant to his ears.

"You..." Elias began warily, his hackles rising. "What the hell happened to you?"

The faint tremor of amusement upon her lips died and her sombre countenance made her all-the-more imposing. "Same as you, I guess. Guards attacked us because we were 'fraternising' with associates of the old crown," she said scathingly with her fingers curling into air quotation marks. "I was the only one who made it out alive. The guards killed my girlfriend; I killed the guards."

The lilac-haired boy's forehead creased into a contemplative frown. "Oh."

Running her cleaner hand through her dark hair, the girl let out a sigh. "How about you? You looked kinda okay for someone who's on the run for his life."

The frown between his brows deepened. How could he tell if he could trust her?

"Dude, you're the one with a weapon here. I can obviously see you holding it. Who do you think has the upper hand in this situation?"

"If you're not armed with a weapon, how did you kill those guards?" Elias riposted and tightened his grip on the hilt.

She smiled, slow and deliberate, like a cat that caught the canary. "Huh, you're smarter than you look, pretty boy." The girl then stretched out an open palm and a ball of fire sprung to life in the very centre.

Elias reeled back, his jaws unhinging and dropping into a comical open-mouthed expression. "You're a magic-user."

Humming in affirmative, the girl drew nearer and plopped down on a dry patch of grass in front of the dying campfire Elias had set up. The ball of fire danced in her palm before transferring itself to the core of the weak flames, rekindling them to the point where they blazed like a fiery inferno.

Elias no longer knew what to make of her.

Magic and its practitioners were seen as fables nowadays. Yet the evidence was standing before him right now.

"My girlfriend and I were planning to get out of the country using these," the girl continued, procuring two slips of paper from the side pocket of her trousers. She held them up for Elias to see. They were two train tickets to a neighbouring country—Vietnam. "You're on the run too, right? Why don't you come along with me?"

It took Elias several seconds to process her words and once he did, he eyed her with open distrust.

"What do you get out of this?"

The girl shrugged. "We're in the same boat here so I thought it'd be nice to have company while being on the run from the fucked up law." She rolled her eyes when Elias still did not look convinced. "Relax, dude. I'm not going to ask for your firstborn child or anything. Both you and I are getting something out of this, you know? You get a free ticket outta here and I get a new partner-in-crime. It's a win-win situation. What do you have to lose?"

"You have no reason to do this," Elias said matter-of-factly, leery of this enigma of a girl.

"Do I need a reason to? It'll just be a waste of ticket if I leave Anwei by myself." The girl waved the slips of paper about. "I got nothing to lose by offering you this. It's alright if you refuse anyway. I just thought you were desperate to leave this mess of a country." She then paused and placed a finger on her chin, pensive. "But looking from your viewpoint, it is kind of weird that a bloodied stranger randomly approached you and asked you to run away with her."

He snorted inelegantly. "It really is."

The girl gave him a side-glance and mustered a lopsided smile which fell the moment she looked away. Elias wasn't sure if he imagined it but there was a silvery trail running down the arc of her cheek. Nonetheless, he decided to give his new companion some semblance of privacy by remaining quiet, deducing that she must still be mourning over the loss of her lover despite her facetious front.

They sat in companionable silence for several minutes, watching the embers spark and fly from the epicentre of the fire, before one of them spoke again.

"Okay."

The girl turned to him with her eyebrows raised. "Come again?"

Steeling his resolve, Elias met the girl's questioning gaze directly. "I'll come with you if you have a solid plan on getting us out of here. Like you said, I am desperate enough to do something as stupid as accepting a stranger's offer to run away together."

He succeeded in eliciting a low laugh from her.

"This doesn't mean I trust you though," Elias added.

"Don't worry, neither do I," she replied. "I'm Rowan Hale by the way. You can just call me Rowan."

"Elias. Elias Everstied."

* * *

When Elias roused awake the next morning, Rowan had already washed up at the nearby brook and was currently putting on clean clothes beside the charred sticks of the campfire that had already been put out. Elias quickly averted his gaze just as the girl finished smoothing out the wrinkles in her shirt and spun around to face him.

"Oh, you're up." She walked over to her rucksack which she had brought along and took out a bottle of water and a granola bar.

After tossing them to Elias, she picked up her dirty clothes and burned them into ashes after conjuring another sphere of fire.

"Once you're done, we're leaving for the next town. It's about a three-hour walk from here but I've got a faster method to get there."

Elias took a sip from the water bottle before scarfing down the granola bar. "What method is it?"  
  
The twinkle of mirth he had seen in her eyes last night returned. "You'll see."

Well, he was seeing it now. And he was not liking it, not one bit.

"Are you serious?" he deadpanned, staring down at the self-levitating board made of fire. It was large enough to carry both of them and he instantly knew what Rowan had in mind when she made it.

She shot him a bemused look. "What's wrong? I already told you these flames aren't the hot, burning kind because I purposely made them that way. It's one of the quirks of my ability. Look, it's safe." She lifted one foot and planted it on the hoverboard. The flames licked at the sole of her shoe but did not singe the material at all. "It's like riding a surfboard. But on air, not on water, obviously. It's cool, isn't it?"

"It's cool," Elias echoed tonelessly, shouldering the rucksack he was carrying for Rowan since he had to hold onto her without it getting in the way. He only had the clothes on his back and nothing else when he escaped so for the nth time in two days, he wondered how he had planned to survive in the wilderness for more than one night without any essentials.

"It will get us to the next town in like an hour. It's super fast and perfectly safe since I'm the one in control so you don't have to worry about a thing. All you gotta do is hold onto me so that you don't fall off. Alright, pretty boy?"

Elias did not deign to respond. He swept his ponytail off of his shoulder and gingerly stepped onto the hoverboard. It did not sink under its weight nor did it budge.

"Good, now move back a little." Rowan gestured to him to make some space for her before getting on. Tentatively, he set his hands down on her shoulder, inwardly noting how she was taller than him by a few inches.

"Ready? Let's go." She willed the hoverboard to move and it obeyed her command, jolting into action and careening forward. Shocked by the sudden movement, Elias re-doubled his hold on her shoulders as they shot out of the clearing and into the thicket of trees. Rowan skilfully steered the board to avoid any stray branches and once the dense forest gave way to a sparse woodland, she leaned forward to distribute her body-weight and propel the board forward.

It accelerated exponentially, causing Elias' heart to jack-rabbit as the surroundings blurred into a kaleidoscope of colours and the autumn wind whipped his hair back and stung his eyes. Blinking away the tears, he chose to duck his head and hide his face in Rowan's shirt, vehemently ignoring the dizzying sensation caused by staying still on an object moving at a breakneck speed.

Thankfully, one hour passed by in a blink of an eye and soon enough, they had reached the outskirts of town. The canopy of the forest was thinning and it could no longer offer them protection from any witnesses who might spot the two of them. Hence, they got off—the hoverboard dissolved away with a flick of Rowan's wrist—and decided to make the rest of their journey on foot. It was approximately a fifteen-minute walk to town and neither of them was tired so it should be fine.

Elias was just grateful that his feet were on solid ground again.

As convenient and safe as it was, this method of transportation stirred up his motion-sickness and he had to suppress the urge to puke multiple times.

If Rowan noticed how pale and sickly-looking he was, she had the tact to not mention it.

Once they were about to cross the highway, she stopped him to take her rucksack from him and rifle through it. She dug out a surgical mask and handed it to him.

"Wear this. We don't want to stand out too much and you might attract attention with your looks." She then frowned, inspecting his ponytail. "There's nothing I can do about your hair so let's just hope for the best. Maybe people won't notice."

Complying, Elias put the mask on and they resumed their trek into town.

Fortunately, no one spared them a glance when they walked into the quiet neighbourhood. Everyone was minding their business—subdued by the political tensions in their country—hurrying about their day with lines of worry etched into their gaunt faces and threadbare clothes that fail to keep out the autumn's chill hanging off their emaciated skin.

Still on high alert for any unexpected occurrences, the unlikely duo passed through the squalid neighbourhood and reached the train station after asking a beggar child for directions. Rowan had given the child a thick wad of money to thank him for his troubles and Elias had grown curious and asked her how much she had on her.

"All of our life savings," she had replied. "There is an extendable charm on this bag so we stuffed it with all of our valuables and a month's supply of clothes before we left."

"You magic-users have an extendable charm? How convenient."

"Yep, someone invented a dimension-altering talisman which you can stick on bags and luggage and even rooms to make them bigger on the inside while their exterior remain the same. I have the talisman with me right now so when we get you a new bag at one of our pit-stops, I'll charm it for you."

She had said it too lightly for him to hold her to her words but he appreciated the sentiment nevertheless.

By the time they reached their destination, it was already noon. The lemon-drop sun was high up in the robin-blue sky, peeking out from cumulus clouds and bathing the dreary ramshackle station in its watery light. The station was surprisingly empty—Elias had expected it to be overrun with civilians who were eager to flee to another country—save for a few others like them with luggage in hand and misery in their eyes.

Elias exhaled slowly, feeling the tension in him leave along with the breath he just let out. In twenty minutes' time, he would be on a train heading to another country where he could start anew. Freedom was so close; he could almost reach out and grasp it.

Sensing his excitement, Rowan turned to him with a wan smile dancing across her chapped lips.

"Soon," she stated, her onyx eyes harbouring a gleam of hope which he knew would be reflected in his own eyes.

Just as he was about to reply, the raucous shriek of wheels scraping against railway tracks reverberated in the station, heralding the arrival of a decrepit carriage which jerked to a stop before them. The train stood in defiance of its condition—all corroded iron and tacky upholstery—and judging by her impassive face, Rowan was equally unimpressed by the contraption. The doors then reluctantly eased open with the force of a stocky station guard, as if they were gripped by age, the handles stiff with arthritis.

The sound of metal against metal triggered a ringing in his ears and he winced, motioning to step inside the carriage when he heard Rowan swear fiercely under her breath.

"Hey, can we have a word with the two of you?" A gruff nasally voice called from the other side of the station.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that the man was referring to them since the station was deserted—the other passengers had already boarded the train.

"What do we do?" Elias said in a hushed tone to Rowan whose expression had darkened.

"Running away will just make us look even more suspicious. We don't have a choice, we have to turn back and see what he wants," Rowan said through gritted teeth, pivoting on her heels and plastering a genial but not too friendly smile on her face.

"Good day, sir. Can I help you?"

Elias turned around to see two heavyset men in bespoke suits eyeing them intently. The facial mask covered most of his face but he still had the inkling that something in his eyes had given them away because one of them furrowed his brows and rested his hand on Elias' shoulder.

Meanwhile, his companion was studying Elias' lilac hair intently and damn it, he wished he had done something to conceal it. His hair was his most striking physical attribute.

"We need you to come with us," the bespectacled one stated, his grip on Elias tightening marginally and the both of them knew it was a command, not a request.

_'Fucking hell.'_

He balled his clammy hands into fists, shaking with repressed rage. They were essentially prey that had finally been backed into a corner by the huntsmen and he absolutely loathed the feeling of vulnerability defeat instilled in him.

"Is there a problem, gentlemen?" Rowan said cordially, her voice dropping an octave. Her lips smiled but her eyes did not. The veiled threat in her tone was unmistakable and the men must have detected it as well since they backtracked, putting more distance between her and themselves.

"We are under direct orders to not harm you."

"Who sent you?" Elias snapped. The conductor was leaning out of a carriage and was bellowing the announcement that the train was going to leave soon. Without them. They needed to leave _now._

Then again, what was stopping him from grabbing Rowan and dashing into a carriage? Hell, what was stopping Rowan from reducing the men to ashes—there were no witnesses around.

He was about to execute his plan and by the looks of the sparks flying from her fingertips, so was she, when the next words stopped them cold in their tracks.

"The one who freed you, Everstied."

Rowan caught his eye and her confusion were visible in the widening of her eyes and her lips shaping the words "freed you".

The doors shuttered close behind them and the din of wheels turning and engine chugging drowned out the static in Elias' head. The train left the platform, taking Elias' dreams of freedom along with it.

* * *

So here he was.

In a room full of weapons ranging from blades to guns, glowering at a gimlet-eyed boy seated across him with an unnerving smile playing on his rosebud lips and his supple fingers steepled.

He and Rowan were escorted to an establishment adjacent to the station and much to their apprehension, they were then brought to different rooms on different floors. He was not attached to the girl per se but admittedly, he had grown used to her presence even if their tenuous alliance had only lasted for a day so far. To be separated from her now was the same as stripping him of his last defence which was having someone familiar to ground him in unfamiliar territory.

He could only hope that she did not let slip anything that could incriminate him even more during her interrogation.

"So," the boy began, saccharine-sweet, pulling him out of his musings. "Elias, is it?"

There was a thick lock of hair obscuring the boy's right eye and for some unfathomable reason, Elias was tempted to brush it back for him and check whether that eye shone the same brilliant gold as the other one. He dug his nails into his palm to stave off the irrational urge, leaving behind crescent indents in his broken skin.

"Yes," Elias answered curtly.

The boy made a thoughtful humming sound before reaching under the table and pulling out a familiar-looking sword. Face blanching, Elias watched as the boy placed the gilded scabbard containing his prized possession on the desk before him. His shrewd eyes latched onto Elias like a predator sinking its claws into its catch, parsing his reaction as he patiently awaited his next course of action.

The amber-eyed boy looked entirely too pleased with himself, acting as if he had emerged as the victor of a game that had not even started.

Elias kind of wished he had not discarded his facial mask. He felt too naked without it—his expressions out in the open for the other boy to read and decipher.

Goddamn it, the boy was already getting under his skin and he had not even said more than five words.

Giving himself a mental slap, Elias regained his composure and schooled his features into something more neutral.

"I'll cut to the chase, Elias." Yun reclined in his chair. "I've heard of how you're the most accomplished swordsman in this generation. A prodigy, a genius—all the adults in high-class society sing your praises. And well, after taking them into account, I've decided I want you on my team."

_'What the actual fuck.'_

Whatever expression he was making must have perfectly conveyed his inner thoughts since the boy rose to his feet with a manic beam nearly splitting his face. Elias drew back as far as he could in his chair, hoping insanity wasn't as contagious as people claimed it was.

"I'm Yun, the son of the secretary of the state. We've actually met at quite a few function parties before."

_'Yeah, I can't remember you.'_ Elias thought wryly but said, "I'm aware," instead.

Yun was going to say something preposterous next, Elias just knew it. There was something so inherently wrong about this situation and the boy in general.

"I'm starting a revolution," said Yun.

_'Called it.'_

"That's...nice," Elias said flatly after a bout of awkward silence. He was almost afraid to ask what this ludicrous master plan had to do with him.

Yun graced him with a bemused sort of smile. "This country is full of corruption and you know it, don't you? Do you need me to refresh your memory with a brief history lesson? It'll help."

Anwei had been governed by royals before democracy came into the picture. In fact, his ancestors had served the old crown until the end of its reign in the past decade. Sovereignty took its place and a democratic party was eventually instated according to the people's demands and for a few years, it was all smooth-sailing.

That was until a mole disclosed that the Anwei Democratic Party was just a farce; it was another corrupt totalitarian governing power that called themselves democratic. And of course, the civilians were angered and soon, civil unrest plagued the country. An uprising was clearly in the making and many associates of the old crown including Elias' family had to flee lest they faced destitution and execution.

But what did this uprising had to do with him? He just wanted to hop on the next train out of the country and start a livelihood as a strawberry farmer in Vietnam or something along the line of that.

"No need." Elias crossed his leg over the other and arched a sculpted brow. "What does this have to do with me? Is there a reason why you helped me get out of prison? You want something from me, don't you?"

"We need your skills, Elias," Yun said, confirming Elias' worst fears. "With you on the frontline, our revolution will be a success."

"No." The word automatically left Elias' lips.

"Think about it," Yun steamrolled on as if he had not heard Elias, "do you want to constantly be on the run; bearing a disgraced family name? If you join my team, we will give you lodging and protection until this whole thing blows over. What do you have to lose?"

_What do you have to lose?_

Elias had heard this exact same phrase just a day ago from Rowan and here he was, receiving another offer again. The two situations were so similar yet vastly different.

Rowan had not expected anything consequential in return when she made that offer but this bastard, on the other hand, was expecting him to mindlessly pledge his loyalty for a cause Elias himself didn't even care about. Sure, Yun was the reason why Elias still had his head attached to his neck—he couldn't say the same for the less fortunate associates—but this was simply too outrageous of a demand.

Yun was asking this of him because he knew Elias _owed_ him.

And that thought made his blood boil.

Elias rested his elbows on his thighs as he leaned forward, his expression guarded and his crimson eyes rapier-sharp.

"So you want me to join your merry little band of revolutionists. What do I get out of that?"

Yun blinked owlishly before upping the intensity of his megawatt smile. "Don't you want something more than the same-old routine of your life?" He walked over to Elias to tilt his chin up with the lacquered pipe in his hand and the lilac-haired boy merely batted his hand away. "Can't imagine training day in day out and living that pretentious royal lifestyle of yours to be much fun. You don't ever have to go back to those days once we turn things around—you can be _free._ Take your chance with me and I'll show you the other side—the one you haven't seen while being cooped up in your mansion."

A muscle under Elias' eye began twitching.

So all he was going to get out of aiding him in his plans was freedom? Freedom which he could have gotten if he and Rowan had been faster by just ten seconds.

This bastard was basically telling him to leave his golden cage for another fucking cage.

Since the start of this confrontation, his patience had been hanging by a tenuous string that was unravelling and unravelling and unravelling till it finally _snapped._

Elias got to his feet, gleaning a vindictive kind of satisfaction from the fact that he towered over the petite boy, and pinned him to the spot with a vitriolic glare.

"Not happening, buddy," he seethed, looking into round aureate eyes brimming with an unreadable emotion. Emboldened by the lack of response from Yun, he continued, "Thanks for your _generous_ offer but no. I think I'm good to go 'cause I quite enjoy the life you say I'm trapped in."

He proceeded to stalk off towards the coat hanger to retrieve his jacket, missing the way Yun's inquisitive gaze followed his retreating back.

"This noble aspiration of yours is admirable, truly." Elias threw his jacket over his shoulders and turned back to the shorter boy with a patronising smile. "You're onto something, really, it's _something_. But I lived a rather comfortable life that didn't involve fighting tooth and nail for a lost cause." The lilac-haired boy drank in the sight of the infuriatingly bright smile sliding off of Yun's face as he sauntered up to him. "So I'm sorry to say this but count me out of this, I'm leaving."

"And I'm taking my sword with me," he said as an afterthought, splaying open his palm and looking at Yun expectantly.

Yun glanced down at the sword in his hand and like a petulant child being denied a treat, he hid the sword behind him with a defiant tilt of his chin.

Incredulity transitioned to annoyance as Elias' lips torqued into a feral snarl. Acting on his unbridled fury, he seized Yun by the collar with one hand—the boy emitted a choked gasp—and looked down at him with a withering glare carved into the grooves of his crimson eyes.

"I think it hasn't gotten into your head that I'm not going to play your fucking games," Elias said slowly, his baritone voice dropping into a low, gravelly rasp.

Large guileless eyes stared up at him while rosebud lips parted in surprise.

"What games?" Yun said, seemingly unperturbed by the vice-like grip Elias had on his collar or by their close proximity. In fact, they were a mere hair's breadth away from each other and Elias could see the sweep of his long lashes against his skin and the smattering of pale freckles dotting his cheeks.

And at that moment, Elias was struck by the realisation that the distance between them was too short for comfort and hastily relinquished his hold on Yun as if he had been scorched.

Without saying another word, Elias crossed the room in a few strides and opened the door. The door inched open a gap before the knob was wrenched out of his hand by some invisible force. Stunned, he could only gape dumbly as the door slammed shut on its own with a dull thud that struck a jarring note in his ears and locked itself with a sharp click.

Elias' knuckles slowly but steadily turned a stark white from how hard he was clenching his fists. Stiffly, he craned his neck and looked at Yun over his shoulder.

"Telekinesis," Yun said nonchalantly as if he hadn't revealed that he was a magic-user.

Elias stared at him blankly for several long seconds before turning back, shifting his weight to one leg, lifting up his foot and striking out with a powerful kick that blew the door off its hinges and knocked it down.

He did not spare Yun a second glance as he walked out, shoulders squared and jaws set taut.

"Elias," Yun called in a gentle voice from behind him.

He kept walking.

"Have you ever seen things from the other side? At least once?"

He stopped.

"You aristocrats are all the same. You're so absorbed in your own little world that you've never bothered to open your eyes and see how others live. This country is killing its own people, Elias. You'll be worse than all those nobles combined if you walk away after knowing the truth. You can't use ignorance or your execution as excuses anymore."

Guilt-tripping him now, was he? How far was he willing to go just to win Elias over to his side?

Fed-up, Elias spun around to give Yun a piece of his mind but his maelstrom of thoughts came to a standstill when he saw Yun's tender yet resigned smile and the way his alabaster skin glowed warmly in the dappled sunlight filtering through the frosted glass of the windows.

"You can change a lot of lives if you agree to this. Including yours," Yun said softly, driving the final nail into the coffin. He held out Elias' sword to him and said, smiling, "But I'll have to leave that up to you."

A vague thought surfaced in Elias' mind at that moment after taking in the sight of Yun swathed in sunrays as if Apollo himself was smiling down upon him.

_'Temptress.'_

They say making a deal with the Devil always led to one's downfall and Elias knew he would experience that first-hand if he took the other's hand.

(He took it anyway.)

* * *

Yun took Elias down to the first floor where there was a quaint café to treat him to lunch since Elias' stomach rumbled at the most inopportune of times, eliciting a giggle out of Yun and a furious blush from Elias. Once they reached the café, they were greeted with the sight of a brooding Rowan whose face brightened fractionally when she spotted Elias.

"Elias," she called, waving him over and pretending not to take notice of Yun who slunk away to talk to a young, pretty oriental man. Great, another one he had to look out for.

"You're still here," Elias said, pleasantly surprised.

"I didn't have much of a choice," she said dryly, sliding into the nearest booth. Elias followed suit.

"So, did they allow you to leave?" Elias asked, seeing no point in beating around the bush.

"They did but I'm not leaving," Rowan said, her face scrunching up as if it physically pained her to admit it. "How about you?"

Elias grimaced. "Same as you."

Rowan squinted her eyes at him. "Let me guess, a cute suave motherfucker who is way too good at emotional manipulation and giving inspirational speeches convinced you to join his side."

Stumped, Elias stared blankly at her. "How did you--"

Snorting in an unladylike manner, the girl jabbed a thumb in the direction of the young oriental man who was conversing earnestly with Yun. "I had to go through the same thing you did. More or less."

Both Elias and Rowan turned to stare at the two males with matching stony looks on their countenance.

"They're dangerous," said Elias.

"Dangerous." Rowan nodded solemnly.

They turned back to face each other and smiled wryly, taking comfort in their shared agony.

"I'm glad you're okay. Back at the station, I thought you were a dead man, dude." Rowan leaned back, folding her arms over her chest. "Not that I don't have any faith in your abilities as an Everstied but..." Rowan trailed off, shrugging. "It'll suck if I lose someone I know two days in a row."

Discomfited by the weird sappy mood, both Rowan and Elias averted their gazes. Albeit Elias' eyes had softened considerably.

"Yeah, that'll suck," Elias said commiseratingly.

"This doesn't mean I trust you though." Rowan scoffed, throwing his own words from the previous night back at him.

"Don't worry." A hint of a smile formed at the edges of Elias' lips as he mentally acknowledged that this was going to be an inside joke between them. "Neither do I."


	2. Drinks and Dance Sequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> cue more awkward/angsty interactions between elias and rowan yay! they're just two emotionally stunted people struggling to show e/o they care while dealing with the two masterminds' interest in them and their own trust issues (✿◡‿◡) don't worry they'll get there someday. and there's a lot of shameless fanservice in this chap so enjoyyy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im fifteen and i have no idea how politics work. im just here for the gays im sorry. i also probably got a lot of historical and geographical facts wrong despite using google so go easy on me please (╯▽╰ )

"Anyway, did Suave Motherfucker Number 2 tell you why he wanted to recruit you?" Rowan said, drumming her fingers on the table in a staccato rhythm.

Elias pulled a face. "You're really calling him that?"

"It's not like I know his name. And I'm not saying that to his face."

"You don't need to; I can hear you." A voice laced with amusement chiming in caused them to startle and jerk violently in their seats. Rowan and Elias looked up at Yun and the oriental male who were both carrying plastic bowls and hot pockets with placid smiles on their faces. Elias gave the latter a thorough appraisal, deducing that he was the one who had spoken to Rowan.

The stranger had dyed honey blonde hair that hung over his doe brown eyes in artful streaks. His full lips, straight-edged nose and prominent cheekbones all coalesced into a patrician profile, juxtaposing with his casual attire. It was odd seeing him in Uniqlo jeggings next to Yun in his traditional garb which was a half-coat fitted over a jumpsuit.

Rowan cleared her throat—the sound reeling Elias back to reality. "Sorry, I-"

"Oh, it's fine, no worries." Yun brushed off her apology with the hand that was holding a hot pocket. "I've been called worse. My name is Yun by the way."

"And I'm Huang Injun," the oriental male introduced himself to Elias with a distinct clipped accent. Wearing a benign smile, he added, "It's nice to finally be able to meet you, Everstied."

Judging by the imperceptible sneer Rowan's lips twisted into, she didn't buy his amiable act for one second. Elias had not interacted with Injun before but if he managed to irk an easy-going person like Rowan—who approached strangers in the middle of the woods with no qualms for her safety—he was certainly someone to look out for.

Assuming that Injun was as adept at smooth-talking as Yun, it would be hard to parse whatever he said was true or not or determine when he was being sincere. It would be wise to stay on guard around him, Elias decided. Just because they accepted the two males' offer, it did not mean they had to trust them.

"Nice to meet you too," Elias said blandly, "and it's fine, you can just call me Elias."

Acquiescing with a nod, Injun placed the plastic bowl and the hot pocket on the table in front of Rowan whilst Yun did the same for Elias. They proceeded to slide into the booth without asking for permission; Yun ending up being pressed against Elias and Injun ending up brushing elbows with Rowan.

The two recruits traded pained grimaces from across the table as plastic cutlery was set down before them. Elias had to adjust the scabbard around his waist so that it did not dig into his thigh due to how cramped it was in the booth now.

"Eat up," Yun chirped, going as far as to push the bowl of Chinese salad towards Elias. The swordsman tried not to turn his nose up in disdain at the sight of sparse, dull-looking vegetables thrown together haphazardly by the chef who deemed the abomination passable as a salad. "You two must be hungry after all that running you did."

"These are the best options the café had," Injun said apologetically to Rowan who was already peeling away the plastic off the microwaved pepperoni hot pocket. "Sorry, we couldn't get you something less..."

He let his words peter away, unable to find the appropriate term to describe the American snack that was stuffed full of artificial pepperoni flavour and various sorts of questionable chemicals and food dye. Rowan, however, seemed to have no reservations devouring it since she was clearly famished after the ordeal she had been through.

Though Elias was far more reluctant than her, he still forced down every scrap of food, knowing that he could not afford to be picky when he wasn't even sure when he would be able to eat a full meal again.

Once they were done and their used cutlery and plates were taken away, Yun and Injun proceeded to fill them in on what they were planning to do next and what their ultimate goal was. They were in a café and that was one of the worst settings you could have a private discussion in but apparently, the owner and staff were on their side and the bodyguards were posted at the entrance so it was relatively safe.

In spite of that, Elias felt discomfited, knowing that they were pretty much out in the open and that if they were caught having such a controversial talk, the consequences would be severe.

"Like we've said earlier on, we're trying to recruit as many people as possible for the revolution as long as they are strong, willing and better yet—capable of performing magic," Yun stated, fighting back a smile as both Elias and Rowan levelled him with unimpressed looks.

_'...Did we look willing to you?'_

"But common folk believe magic-users have died out long ago due to the purges in the nineteenth century. I'm pretty sure there are less than a thousand in Anwei currently and they are all in hiding so how did you find out about me?" Rowan asked brusquely. "I know I revealed myself when I killed the guards sent after me but I made sure there were no witnesses...unless someone went unnoticed?"

Elias nodded. "Yeah, why else would your guard dogs be conveniently stationed there at the exact same time we were going to hightail out of Anwei? Someone must have been following us."

Yun baulked, his gaze darting towards Injun. "Let's just say we have eyes and ears everywhere and there's someone on our team with the ability to track magic-users they had have contact with before. And your magical essence is very...noticeable to users who are more spiritually attuned given your pyrokinetic ability so you're practically..." Yun made a vague hand gesture in Rowan's direction. "Out there."

A scowl marred Rowan's features and Elias swore he saw a literal fire blazing in her eyes before they returned to their usual inky-black hue.

"You do realise I'm not familiar with these terms, right? Most books about magic have been destroyed ever since the purges so do you mind giving me a run-down?" Elias spoke up before they could get too carried away.

"Oh right," Injun said, sheepish. "You see, every human has a metaphorical canister in them that contains dormant spiritual energy. Magic-users are able to tap into that canister and harness the spiritual energy within them from birth whereas ordinary humans live out their lives with that energy remaining dormant in them. Magic-users actually have an official term back in the past but the connotation was pretty negative so we just go by magic-users."

Elias nodded, showing that he was following along with his explanation. "What's the term?"

"Deviants."

"Magic-users it is."

"But there are exceptions amongst the ordinary humans. Some of them can activate that dormant energy in them later on in life whether it is because they are late-bloomers or an incident that had a huge impact on their psyche somehow triggered it."

Yun's eyes became downcast, the limpid gold of his irises darkening into a murky brown.

"Like for example, have you seen the news where people somehow became superhumans and saved themselves or others from danger? That is an example of them subconsciously releasing a small burst of dormant energy in them and utilising it at that moment to fulfil a task that seemed impossible for an ordinary human out of sheer desperation."

"It's very rare but it happens," Yun said, shrugging. "People usually just chalk it up to their imagination or explain it away as a miracle or with some scientific hypothesis that makes no sense. Human denial is incredibly powerful after all."

"That's interesting and all but you're telling me you're just rounding up all the magic-users you can find and revealing their identities to non-magic-users in your team? Isn't that risky? What if a spy leaks that information? How can you just trust your recruits like that?" Elias said, frustrations mounting. Rowan appeared to share his sentiments since she was starting to eye the two males with open hostility.

Injun let out a snort that was uncharacteristic of his polite disposition. "What do you take us for? Idiots? There is a magic-user in our group who specialise in blood magic. You are required to do a blood oath before meeting the other wielders and that means if you even entertain the idea of betraying us for _one_ second, the blood oath will do its job and kill you on the spot."

Mollified by the assurance, Rowan deflated in relief while Elias' brows nearly rose up into his hairline. That was morbid but...effective.

"Okay, so what are you going to do next?" Rowan cocked her head to the side.

" _We,"_ Yun began, staring pointedly at them with a familiar daredevil's glint in his eyes, "are going to go to Hanoi, Vietnam and we are going to see a circus performance."

Elias and Rowan stared blankly at him.

"Are you _fucking_ kidding me?" Rowan forced out after a terrifying minute of complete stillness. Ribbons of light streamed through the crevices between her fingers when she clenched her fists and yes, Elias was not imagining the flames in her eyes just now.

They were incandescent scarlet—like his own but with pools of lava lining the edges and gradually engulfing the brown in her irises; reducing it to the very centre until there was only red.

It was mesmerising to watch.

"Nope," Yun said far too blithely for someone in the face of death, "you can use the ticket you already have. Train conductors are too lax nowadays. They don't bother to check the time of your boarding. As long as you have a ticket, you're good to go. We can also upgrade you to first-class if you want."

"We heard from one of our allies that they have a family member who is a magic-user in the circus trope," Injun clarified, looking contrite on Yun's behalf though it did nothing to ameliorate the situation since Rowan looked like she was two seconds away from burning off their faces. At least her eyes had gone back to normal after hearing that her money wouldn't be wasted. "So we are going to watch their latest performance in Hanoi and approach her afterwards."

"And you actually think she will want to help us when she isn't even obligated to? She doesn't even live in Anwei," Elias pointed out exasperatedly.

"She used to," said Yun, "but she ran off to join the troupe because her family disowned her thinking she was practising dark magic. She actually owes our ally a favour since she was the one who helped her financially. And from what I've heard, she's a woman of her word. I'm sure she'll agree to return here and join the uprising."

Rowan pinched the bridge of her nose, no longer fuming but still very much done with the two masterminds. "Aren't you guys being a little too naïve here? Who's to say she won't go back on her word? She's probably living comfortably in Vietnam so why in the bloody hell would she choose to involve herself in our country's fuckery just because of a debt she owes?"

"It really won't hurt to try. She's a powerful wielder so if she joins, that's great. If she doesn't, well, we just wasted our time," said Injun.

"I won't call it a waste of time either." Yun tutted in reproach. "Think of it as a work vacation. We deserved it after months of preparation. While we're gone, our subordinates will take care of the less important matters. Really, we're so close. We just need the last weapon to add to our arsenal and we can kickstart this revolution."

Elias goggled at them, disbelieving of how blasé they were to-

Well, _everything._

To think that they were the tacticians behind this upcoming rebellion was kind of disconcerting.

Injun hummed in agreement. "True, we have nothing to lose."

_'I'm getting real sick of that phrase.'_

Rowan threw up her hands and voiced out Elias' inner thoughts. "God, I can't stand the two of you. Why did I agree to this?"

"Because deep down, you're a _good_ person who wants to change the world for the better," Injun said sweetly. A little too sweetly.

Predictably, Rowan rose to the bait. "Fuck you, you five-foot-tall sugarplum princess." She then pitched her voice several octaves higher to mock Injun. "Oh look at me, I'm the second coming of Virgin Mary. I'm God's chosen prophet who will lead the poor people to peace and harmony while mind-fucking my enemies with emotional manipulation and the power of love and my cute puppy-dog eyes."

Yun bit down on his lips to hold back a snicker, Elias shut his eyes and willed for more patience while Injun merely reacted to her with calm indifference.

"It's rather sacrilegious to Christians and Catholics both if you mix up Moses and Mary." Injun's eyes crinkled at the corners when he grinned at her. "But I'm glad you think my puppy-dog eyes are cute, thanks."

Rowan let loose an incoherent screech of anger and face-planted on the table with a loud thud, still screaming, though the tortured noise sounded muffled now.

"So...Vietnam?" Elias said, getting to his feet and acting as if Rowan wasn't there.

Yun and Injun smiled at him, looking uncannily similar to each other.

"Vietnam."

* * *

Since Anwei was connected to Vietnam, the railway network was extended to the borders of the neighbouring country—namely Ha Long and Hai Phong. It would take a few hours until the train crossed the borders of Anwei and Vietnam so they were allowed to take a much-needed nap in the refuge of their private first-class compartment.

For a first-class cabin, it was far from ostentatious. There were no gaudy furred carpeting or luxurious but tough Italian leather covering their seats and even for a pampered noble like Elias, he favoured the simplicity more. He just enjoyed the perks of travelling first-class such as the high-quality meals, the extra leg-room and the clean washrooms.

He had missed material comforts like these after being on the run and braving the wilderness for days.

He returned to their cabin after taking a shower and changing into a turtleneck and a pair of jeans that Yun had packed away in his luggage for them (he didn't want to know how Yun had gotten his measurements right). He found Injun already dozing off against the headrest of his reclining chair with Yun seated across him, leafing through a newspaper.

Meanwhile, Rowan was seated across the aisle, taking up two chairs to stretch out her gangly legs. Turning away from the passing scenery of lush meadows and distant snow-capped mountains, the brunette looked up and caught his eye.

"You cleaned up nicely," she commented, removing her legs from the seat beside hers. She had changed into a hoodie and a pair of sweatpants with her unkempt hair still damp from her shower, lounging around in a sloppy state of attire and acting as if this was her home. Almost as if she could sense him judging her, she raised a brow and purposely shook her head so that the water droplets landed on him just to spite him.

Elias sent her a half-hearted glower and she chuckled, beckoning him to sit and when he did, she rested her legs on his lap.

Rolling his eyes, he let the comfortable silence dragged on for a while before speaking.

"Hey, can we talk?"

"We're talking now."

"It's serious."

Rowan furrowed her brows. "Shoot."

"I've been meaning to ask you since we met. Why did you reveal to me that you're a magic-user if you didn't trust me?"

Her pleasant mask seemed to crack in an instant and the ever-present gleam in her eyes disappeared, leaving them utterly devoid of emotions.

"What if I had reacted badly and--" Elias fumbled for the right word though he was interrupted before he could finish his sentence.

"You're an Everstied," she said matter-of-factly, "your family is of old blood and they served royalty as well as high-ranking magic-users back in the days. Your ancestors must have kept manuscripts and records that were passed down generation from generation. And up to this day, I'm sure your family still keeps those records in your library so you must have read about our kind in those records."

Elias swallowed his saliva. She hit the nail on the head with that conclusion.

"You might not believe in our existence entirely but I think you've acknowledged that it might be possible for us to still be living among ordinary humans. And I trust that that acknowledgement was enough to keep you from losing your shit or something." She then paused, mulling over her words. "You know what, I'm just bullshitting right now to make myself look like I knew what I was doing. I actually don't know if your family still do that but I revealed my nature to you anyway because I didn't care anymore. I wasn't in the right state of mind then."

Elias subconsciously drew closer to her, paying rapt attention.

"I had to leave my home, I lost my girlfriend, I killed several people in a row and I was basically in a very fucked up headspace so when I ran into the forest and met you, I just didn't give a shit if you knew what I was. I wasn't scared anymore; I had nothing to lose. I was ready to take you down with me if things had gone wrong."

Something in his stomach lurched upon hearing the revelation and he fervently hoped it wasn't his lunch. So he was right to consider her a threat from the very start. He didn't want to imagine it but she could have effortlessly incinerated him until his body was beyond recognition in the dead of the night with no one around to hear his screams.

It could have been the outcome if he had done anything to her that warranted his death.

She must have seen the tremors wracking his hands and the blood draining from his face since she lowered her gaze, guilt evident on her visage.

"Don't take it too personally, dude," she said, still trying to come off as flippant when she was also affected by her own confession, judging by her trembling bottom lip. "I was just...I didn't trust you, I still don't, and I needed an incentive to kill you if the time comes. You understand, right?"

"I do," Elias said tartly, giving himself a mental pat on the back when his voice came out steely and unwavering, "I do understand but that doesn't mean I have to like it."

Rowan winced. "Of course not."

Flexing his fingers to regain some control of them, he got to his feet stiffly, throwing Rowan's legs off of him and leaving the compartment. He could feel Yun and Rowan's piercing stares boring holes into his back but he shrugged it off.

They didn't trust each other—they had already established that.

But it still felt like a betrayal.

Clicking his tongue, he let down his lavender-hued hair to rake his hands through it in an attempt to get them to stop trembling as he marched down the express train without a destination in mind.

Weariness sank in along with the revelation, leaving behind a bone-deep ache. This past week was nothing short of hellish what with running away from his home; getting separated from his family; being divested of his dignity when captured; having to come to terms with his execution; meeting a pyrokinetic and being recruited for political upheaval.

For the umpteenth time that day, he envisioned what his life would have turned out to be like if he had boarded the train on time.

It would have been a lot less complicated that was for sure.

Elias was nearing the end of the first-class cabins so he turned back and entered the second last compartment which was a classy bar decked out in tasteful minimalist décor with lamps hanging from the ceiling. The hook-nosed bartender manning the area had offered to fix him a pick-me-up amenably and he had agreed, wanting to take his mind off of certain things and not caring if he was indulging in his vice.

He seated himself on one of the high stools, absent-mindedly tying and re-tying his hair to occupy himself whilst the bartender made his mojito. Listening to the clinks of shot glasses while watching the bucolic countryside pass by was almost cathartic and he was starting to feel better by the minute when someone sat down beside him, bursting his little bubble of solitude.

Without having to look away from the window, Elias could tell the newcomer was Yun from the scent of roses he carried with him. The mild fragrance had been bothering the whole time he was sitting beside Yun back at the café and it was still bothering him now.

"You alright?" There was a hint of concern in his mellow voice though Elias knew better than to think it was genuine.

"Fine," he said shortly and because he was in a foul mood, couldn't help but tack on, "until you came here."

Much to his chagrin, the amber-eyed boy let loose a tinkling laugh, completely unperturbed by Elias' churlish behaviour.

"Sorry to interrupt your brooding then, big guy. You sure you don't want some company?"

This time around, Elias turned in his seat to fix Yun with a venomous glare that hopefully conveyed that his company was not appreciated. It still did little to nothing to deter Yun from making small talk with Elias.

"Come on, we are on the same side now. Why don't we get to know each other better? Trust is pretty important in this line of work," Yun cajoled with a lazy smile, propping his cheek up with one hand and smooshing it, making him look child-like and oddly endearing.

Elias looked away before that train of thought could continue.

"What can I get for you?" the bartender asked Yun as he poured in a vial of pomegranate juice into Elias' drink and topped it with a sprig of mint and a slice of lime.

Yun hummed thoughtfully. "One appletini, please."

Elias preferred downing his drinks in one go to savouring them since his main aim was to get wasted and forget. But he didn't see the appeal in appearing like an inebriated fool in front of Yun so he took his time to finish the cocktail, still resolutely ignoring him.

If he had a modicum of common sense, he would finally get the message and fuck off.

He didn't.

"Did you have a quarrel with your friend?"

Elias growled and set down the empty glass with a resounding clunk.

The bartender watched him out of the corner of his eyes warily whilst mixing the martini.

Yun batted his lashes innocently with his gloss-smeared lips quirked up into a tiny smile.

"Will you shut up for one second?" Elias said through gritted teeth.

Yun pouted. "Damn, I was hoping the alcohol will loosen you up."

Elias remained silent though the tell-tale sign of his simmering anger was the glass letting out an ominous creak in his white-knuckled hand. Yun's gaze darted down to the taut muscles spanning the length of Elias' arms and traced them over appreciatively.

"I'm taking it as a 'yes'."

Elias brought his hand up to shield his eyes. "Get me another drink."

The bartender conceded readily, detecting the edge in his voice. He handed Yun his appletini before getting started on Elias' order with a tankard of vodka in hand. Someone get this bartender a raise. He knew what his customers needed.

After taking a delicate sip from his glass, Yun made a soft sound of content like a kitten that had gotten a taste of milk.

God, why was he drawing these kinds of comparisons with Yun of all people?

"I'm really glad you agreed to this," Yun said, swinging his feet back and forth since they scarcely touched the floor unlike Elias'.

The lilac-haired boy's hand spasmed upon realising where this conversation was headed. He then glowered at Yun and jerked his head in the bartender's direction, wordlessly articulating his worry over a potential eavesdropper catching wind of their plans.

Yun waved a dismissive hand as he drained the last dredges of his drink.

"Relax, Paul's paid extra to keep his mouth shut. He's also one of my eyes and ears. Refill this for me, will you?"

Elias chanced a look at the man who did not respond to Yun's statement aside from taking his martini glass and pouring more of the green cocktail into it. Paul handed Elias his vodka as well, receiving a muttered thanks.

They drank half of their drinks before continuing the conversation.

"You already have magic-users in your team. What do you need me for?"

"We only have five or six and contrary to popular belief, that isn't enough. And some of their abilities aren't the combative kind either," Yun said and took a bite out of the apple slice. He then plucked the cherry from the bed of melting ice and popped it into his mouth. "We need you to train them so that they can fight in an actual battle."

Elias tried not to look too conspicuous while watching Yun tie the cherry stem into an elaborate knot with his tongue. The golden-eyed boy was oblivious to the scrutinisation as he stuck out the tip of his tongue to remove the cherry knot.

On the other hand, Paul looked from Yun to Elias and back to Yun as if they were a particularly interesting soap opera before taking a loud sip from his cup of brandy.

"Just because I'm a good swordsman, doesn't mean I'm a good teacher," Elias said at long last and gulped down the last of his vodka, relishing in the bitter aftertaste and the burn in his throat while trying not to look at the cherry knot Yun had discarded inside the empty martini glass.

"We'll figure something out," Yun said, tucking a stray lock of ash-black hair behind his ear which had an Anwei flag earring dangling from its lobe.

It proved futile since the lock merely slipped out and returned to its original position. Later on, Elias would claim it was the alcohol's effects as he reached out on impulse and tucked the stray strand back for him, making sure it stayed behind his ear before letting his hand fall.

He wasn't sure if the blush coating the planes of Yun's cheeks was a result of the martini or his spur-of-the-moment decision.

He also didn't know how to feel about the bartender slinking away to clean the table furthest away from their spot.

"As I was saying." Yun looked mortified when his words came out in a squeak. After clearing his throat to salvage his pride, he spoke again in a more level voice, "As I was saying, I'm glad it didn't take me long to convince you."

For Yun's sake, Elias opted to ignore the vocal mishap and hummed in response to urge him to continue.

"I really thought I would have to break into a song I made specifically for you."

Elias nearly choked on air.

"A song?" Elias said incredulously, his mouth twitching as he fought back a smile.

"Yeah, I called it 'The Other Side' and it would take about two and a half minutes with a dance sequence. I was going to climb up the table and spin your sword like a baton and everything."

Something warm and fuzzy began bubbling in his chest and before he could put a finger on what it was, an unrestrained burst of laughter escaped from him. Stunned by his own reaction, he immediately slapped his hand over his mouth to muffle it. Alas, Yun had already seen and heard him laugh and the triumphant beam that formed on his face was breath-taking—all teeth and pure serotonin.

It was different from the smiles Elias had seen in the past few hours.

It was a mere curve of his lips but it changed his face from guarded and politely indifferent to open and radiant.

_'Temptress,'_ his (probably) addled brain supplied helpfully and Elias politely told it to fuck off.

"Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures." Yun shrugged, his flushed face suffused with unadulterated joy as he peered up at Elias with that damned toothy smile plastered on his lips. "Maybe a musical number would have taken a shorter time convincing you to join me."

"Or maybe it would have scared me away," Elias said with a wry twist of his lips and Yun was either too drunk or too happy to take offence to that. In fact, he even cracked a giggle of his own and slapped Elias on the shoulder though it was too light and affectionate to be considered an actual hit.

_'Wait, affectionate?'_ Sirens blared in Elias' head.

"You have a sense of humour after all!" Yun enthused with widened eyes, looking far too awed by this realisation. He was still giggling madly, only pausing to take in short gulps of air before resuming.

Yeah, he was definitely drunk.

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile!" Yun remarked once he had calmed down, his hand reaching out to poke Elias' cheek. "You're always so grumpy and serious even when you were a kid and you had never smiled back then. I thought you had facial defects or something."

Elias gently caught Yun's hand in his before he could poke him again. "Oh really?"

"Facial defects as in your facial muscles weren't working. There's nothing wrong with your face itself of course. You have a very nice face." Yun tittered and leant in, cupping his other hand around his mouth with a conspiratorial gleam in his eyes. It took a Herculean effort for Elias to resist the pull of leaning closer as well. "You look more handsome when you smile by the way."

Something in Elias thawed and unravelled.

"So you're implying that I still look handsome when I don't smile?" Elias said in a strained voice, intending to make his reply come off as casual or playful but the lump in his throat prevented that. He released Yun's hand (was he holding onto it the whole time?) and pressed the heel of his palm to his sternum, giving it a rub as he wondered what was wrong with him.

He has always been self-assured of his looks—who wouldn't be if you were reminded almost daily by visiting aristocrats and family friends sucking up to you or gaggles of girls at function parties scanning you from head to toe like you were a piece of meat?

So it couldn't have been the compliment that flustered him.

_'Maybe it's the person the compliment came from that's flustering you?'_ his brain suggested coyly and Elias decided to just shut out his drunk thoughts from this moment forth.

Yun blinked owlishly. And in a tone that people used when stating "the sun is hot" or "cilantro tastes like soap", he said, "Yes, you've always been good-looking. I'm not blind."

"But you are tipsy right now, aren't you?" Elias said in an attempt to change the subject before he could combust from the inexplicable searing heat coursing through his body.

The alcohol. It was the _alcohol_.

"Noooo," Yun said slowly with his voice lilting at the end, making it sound like a question. "Okay, maybe, just a little," he added when Elias raised his eyebrow, sceptical.

"That's enough drinks for today then. Let's head back," Elias said with a roll of his eyes, unaware of his own lips tugging up into a fond smile as he slid off his seat. "Come on."

"Coming, coming," Yun said cheerfully, stumbling as he hopped off his stool and he would have fallen flat on his face if Elias hadn't caught him by his arm.

Elias shook his head in disbelief. "Are you kidding me? You're a lightweight? I thought you were just tipsy but you're absolutely wasted."

"I'm not!" Came the defensive reply.

"Lightweights never admit that they are a lightweight." Elias narrowed his eyes at the shorter male. "You literally only had two appletinis and you've already lost your motor control. Martinis aren't even high in alcohol content." He turned to the bartender who was doing his best to blend in with the background. "Oi, how much vodka did you put in his drink?"

"I can assure you, it was the normal amount."

Elias looked down at a sulking Yun with a smug smile. "Lightweight."

Jutting out his bottom lip, Yun suddenly leaned against Elias and the latter scrambled to support his weight.

"Since I'm drunk, carry me back," he commanded like a spoilt toddler tired from taking more than five steps.

Elias stared at him, slack-jawed. After several seconds had lapsed by and Yun still made no move to budge from his spot, Elias let out an incredulous huff.

"You're serious."

Yun peered up at him through long lashes and the weight of his gaze turned Elias' palms clammy. "Very."

"No." Elias tried to sound admonishing but it merely came out as a choked syllable. He then tried to get Yun to stand upright on his two feet but merely succeeded in shifting the shorter male in his arms until he was resting his chin on his chest.

Yun's arms then snaked around his waist and clung onto the back of his turtleneck, causing Elias to inhale sharply.

He should really do something about these abnormal heart palpitations.

"Please," Yun dragged out the word and his round eyes took on a suspiciously glossy sheen. "Ellie, please."

_'Cute puppy dog eyes plus emotional manipulation,'_ a voice that sounded far too much like Rowan's supplied helpfully and Elias vehemently told it to fuck off.

"Is he always this...clingy and shameless when drunk?" the lilac-haired boy said to no one in particular but got a response anyway from the bartender.

"Shameless, yes," Paul confirmed, probably having served Yun on previous occasions. He didn't look at Elias in the eye when he proceeded to say, "But clingy, no, not really. He normally doesn't do this at all. He's rather chaste about this kind of thing."

Elias stared at Paul for a long while.

"If you're looking for directions, your cabin is that way." Paul pointed to his left.

"...Thanks," Elias said weakly, rearranging his arms so that one of them was resting on Yun's back and crouching down to place the other behind Yun's knees.

God, he must be drunk too if he was agreeing to this.

In one swift movement, he scooped up the slight boy, eliciting a delighted squeal from him once he found himself elevated.

"Onwards!" Yun declared, looping his arms around Elias' neck and gazing at him with red cheeks, sparkling eyes and a disarming smile. "Go, go."

The sarcastic retort "Yes, your Majesty" failed to leave Elias in the face of such earnestness and he had to physically swallow the words before beginning his walk back to their compartment.

Sporadic giggles would slip out of Yun from time to time when Elias struggled to fit them through the narrow doorway of each compartment. With his head held high, Elias endured the embarrassment of having fellow passengers glance at them whenever they passed through their cabins.

He would almost rather be decapitated than suffer through this indignity and if someone had told him this what he was signing up for a day ago, he would have reduced them to tears with one frosty look.

Eventually, they made it back to their cabin in one piece. More or less. Elias' pride had been torn into shreds about five compartments ago whereas Yun was blissfully ignorant of the emotional torture the other had gone through.

Again, Elias had to face the humiliation of Rowan and Injun looking up from their card game in tandem and staring at them blankly.

Injun opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish and Rowan blinked her eyes rapidly at them.

"Jun! Ro!" Yun called happily, his grip around Elias' neck slackening as he removed one hand to wave at them. "We're back!"

"You're back," Rowan echoed.

"And you're in his arms." Injun raised a brow. "Totally wasted."

Heat crawled up Elias' neck as he steadfastly ignored their presence and walked towards a seat to dump Yun on it. Thankfully, the boy released him without encouragement and slumped against the backrest, looking dazed and drowsy.

When the heat of their stares became unbearable, Elias whirled around to give them a sharp glare that could cut through steel.

"Did you have fun?" Rowan asked once she had recovered from the shock. She was pressing her lips together in an effort to stop her laughter from escaping.

"No," Elias replied emphatically at the exact same time Yun exclaimed sleepily, "Yeah."

Rowan and Injun shared an amused look.

Elias dragged his hand down his face, groaning in exasperation. "Fuck, I'm beat, I'm going to take a nap. Don't disturb me."

"Oh, you are going to sleep?" Yun perked up though his exhaustion was evident in his eyes that were now half-lidded and the soft yawn that escaped his lips afterwards. "Can we cuddle, Ellie?"

"NO!" Elias screeched just as the two other occupants of the room dissolved into choked laughter.

Yun looked utterly crestfallen like a kicked puppy by the rejection and Christ, Elias wasn't heartless enough to be unbothered by it.

"How cruel of you, _Ellie_ ," Rowan wheezed, falling on Injun as she doubled over from the force of her soundless laughter. 

Injun tried to maintain a straight face as he said, "Elias, just sit beside him and let him rest his head on your shoulder or lap. It's not that hard."

"If it's not that hard, why don't _you_ do it?" Elias hissed, adamantly not looking at Yun's eyes full of unshed tears.

"Can't you see that we're busy?" Rowan held up her Monopoly cards to cover her face which was now streaked with tears from how hard she was laughing.

"Too busy laughing at my misery," Elias countered with his lips contorted into a deep scowl.

Injun sighed. "Don't be dramatic, just do it. Yun is extra sensitive when he's drunk and I don't want to deal with him crying today."

As if it was on cue, a faint sniffle sounded, sending Elias into a frenzy.

"For fuck's sake." Elias hurried over to Yun and sat himself down beside him. Turning to him with a stern glower—though its effect was ruined by his flustered blush, Elias said, "You can sleep on my shoulder. Nothing more, you hear me?"

In a blink of an eye, the tears were gone and a winsome smile was in place.

"Okay," Yun sang and nestled his head in the crook of Elias' neck, muttering something incoherent before he was out like a light.

_'Just one hour left. One hour of this and we're done,'_ Elias thought grimly, taking a deep breath as Yun's floral-scented hair tickled his chin.

In the background, Rowan and Injun tried and failed to smother their snickering behind their cards.


	3. And There Was Only One Bed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> more bonding time for our favourite quartet with a cliché trope at the endヽ(✿ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im so sorry to any vietnamese readers if i got anything culturally wrong. it's so hard to find information about vietnam in the nineties??
> 
> and wow this is my longest chapter  
> ˎ₍•ʚ•₎ˏ (and my least favourite too. it's just all over the place)
> 
> i made yun demisexual bcoz i feel that demisexuality is just as valid as other sexual orientations and there's a worrying lack of representation about them ಠ_ಠ

About ten minutes before the train reached the destination, Yun stirred awake with a faint groan and a flutter of his lashes. Elias, who was reading a book throughout the remainder of the journey, stiffened slightly. This was going to be awkward to explain, especially with Rowan and Injun sitting across them and giving him matching grins that were as unhinged as the Kool-Aid Man's.

Elias looked at them askance, clutching his leather-bound book tighter and contemplating if he should bash it over their heads. _'They are enjoying this way too much.'_

"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty," Injun said just as Yun lifted his head from Elias' shoulder and rubbed at his bleary eyes with a knuckle.

Once Yun had shifted away, Elias rolled his cramped shoulder to get rid of the tension gathering there after withstanding it for the past hour. If it weren't for the fact that Yun had trapped him in a full-body glomp in his sleep, he would have gotten up long ago just to throttle his other companions for making suggestive hand gestures and winks—that look more like eye-spasms—at him the whole time. 

(He didn't want to entertain the theory that their teasing only got worse because he refused to get up and risk disturbing Yun.)

Yun blinked, his eyes gaining clarity as the last vestiges of sleep faded away. He then glanced at Elias and stared blankly at him for two seconds before making a strangled sound that was akin to a dying cat.

"Please don't tell me I fell asleep on your shoulder," Yun whispered, connecting the dots. He was gradually taking on the pallor of a corpse as the colour drained from his face.

"You did," Rowan said with barely concealed glee.

He didn't think it was possible but Yun paled even further.

Elias rushed to console him. "It's fine, you were kinda drunk so I let you fall asleep on me." Out of the corner of his eyes, Elias sent Rowan and Injun a warning glare, telepathically ordering them to keep quiet about Yun's drunken antics. He had suffered enough embarrassment today, thank you very much.

"At least you didn't drool on him." Injun ducked his head to hide his impish grin. "You just clung to him the entire time, that's all."

A 'pft' left Rowan's lips but she contained it before it could turn into a full-blown laugh.

"I'm so sorry!" Yun border-line wailed, burying his face in his palms as crippling shame assailed him. "I have a habit of hugging the nearest thing when I sleep! I'm _really_ sorry."

Although a small part of Elias felt a vindictive kind of satisfaction that Yun was also suffering with him, he opted to take pity on him. "Really, it's not a big deal. I let my sister use my shoulder as a pillow too sometimes."

Fortunately, Rowan also sympathised with Yun and patted his knee comfortingly. "Just forget about it, man. Go wash up and drink some water. We're arriving very soon so I hope your hangover isn't bad enough to knock you out for the rest of the day."

"If you feel too unwell to walk, Elias can always carry you. Like he did just now," Injun mentioned off-handedly as if he was conversing about the weather instead of dropping a cringe-inducing fact that made Elias want to melt into a puddle and become one with the carpet beneath them.

"He did _what?"_ Yun said shrilly, letting his hands fall to reveal his blanched face that did a 180-degree turn and reddened at an alarming rate.

Elias struggled to formulate an explanation while trying to shut off his internal screaming. "You were really wasted and you wouldn't leave unless I carried you so-"

"Christ, I'm so sorry, kill me now." The amber-eyed boy's words came out muffled since he hid his face in his hands again. "I should have controlled my alcohol intake. Yun, you dumbass, why the _hell_ did you think it was a good idea to get wasted in front of a new recruit? I've probably lost all of your respect."

"If it helps, we didn't respect you all that much in the first place since you basically kidnapped us and all," Rowan said mildly, "it's not a big deal like Elias said. Just forget about it." Though by the devious smirk crossing her face, _she_ wasn't going to forget about it any time soon.

With a nod of assent, Yun left in a hurry, adamantly avoiding Elias' gaze as he headed towards the attached washroom.

The moment the door to the washroom clicked shut, Elias sprang to his feet and gripped Injun by the shoulders to shake him back and forth.

"JUN, YOU ASSHOLE!" Elias whisper-screamed, digging his bony fingers into Injun's shoulders to elicit a series of frantic "ow ow ow". "Why the fuck did you tell him that!? I'm going to pummel your pretty face in I swear-"

"NOT THE FACE, NOT THE FACE!" Injun shrieked between bouts of hysterical laughter as he fended off Elias' half-hearted punches. "Ro!" He called out for his partner-in-crime in a moment of desperation. "Help me!"

Said partner-in-crime whistled a breezy tune whilst picking at her cuticles. Betrayed, Injun let out a theatrical gasp that broke off into a slew of profanities when Elias poked him in the stomach.

Giving Injun one last jab in the ribs, Elias sat back down, combing back the tendrils of his hair that had fallen loose from his ponytail. His breath came out ragged and his cheeks were flushed red from exertion as well as lingering embarrassment from earlier on.

"So help me God, if you pull this kind of shit again, I will run you through with my sword," Elias growled, light pants punctuating each syllable.

Knowing that Elias could and would follow up on his threat since his weapon was packed away in Rowan's extendable bag, Injun nodded his head vigorously with his arms wrapped around himself like a violated maiden.

"Which sword are we talking about here?" Rowan mumbled, her gaze pointedly dipping downwards.

"ROWAN HALE!" Elias yelled, scandalised, and took a random cushion to place on his lap and cover his nether regions. "You're lucky I don't hit women!"

"Pretty sure if you keep that up, you'll become an exception to that rule," Injun told Rowan under his breath, rubbing his sore spots gingerly.

"Damn right." Elias scowled at them though he didn't look as intimidating as he hoped with his beet-red cheeks and dishevelled attire. He missed the days when all he had to do was look at someone in the eye and they would flounder and look away or dramatically run off in the other direction.

Injun and Rowan only saw him as a particularly interesting plaything to poke and prod and entertain themselves with until they finally tipped him over the edge. They had no reason to fear him since they were of equal standing (or even superior to him) so they didn't have to trip themselves up trying to avoid angering him.

Hell, they enjoyed doing it actually.

He didn't quite know how to feel about that. People his age were too daunted by his standoffish nature or too awestruck by his list of achievements and his family's reputation to ever approach him, much less tease him to no end. But when they did approach him, it was usually on behalf of their family to get in his good graces or out of their personal interest which was more often than not _sexual_.

Once upon a time, he had been gullible enough to believe people approached him out of goodwill.

(Never again.)

So on second thought, he much preferred Rowan and Injun's teasing and their aggravating (but never cruel) treatment of him to the painted smiles and white lies he had grown up with.

At least, these two were real. Horrid and vexing to deal with; rough around the edges; different variations of having a few screws loose but real _._

And that might be what he needed all along. He didn't need someone to be perfect, he just needed someone to be _there_.

_'I don't trust you two and I might never do but this is fine. It's fine being here for now.'_

Seeing the two of them let out peals of laughter again with delight visible in the crinkle of their eyes and the warm glow of happiness emanating from them, he wondered how long this arrangement would last.

* * *

Several security-checks later, they were in Hai Phong, the colonial port city of Vietnam, waiting for their designated driver to take them to the capital. The place was teeming with life, unlike Anwei where the streets were deserted and its people were withdrawn and haunted.

Hawkers hollered out deals, housewives in humble but clean clothes haggled over prices with them and sweat-drenched children kicked up dust as they ran about under the scorching sun.

Despite the hardships of the Vietnam war, the people were recovering. Slowly but steadily. Some of them still had traces of war and poverty inscribed into their very being but they carried those taints with an air of dignity, weathered down but not defeated.

In general, there was a lightness in their movement that was missing in the people of Anwei.

"It will take us two hours to get to Hanoi!?" Injun said loudly, jarring Elias. He was understandably disgruntled as he listened to a nervous attendant rambling on about tolls and traffic density. They had just sat through a bumpy three-hour train ride and now they were going to have to sit through another long journey in a car. Needless to say, no one was looking forward to that.

In Vietnam, the locals' typical mode of transport was motorbikes or bicycles but being the son of the secretary of another country came with its perks and one of the perks included air-conditioned cars with comfortable upholstery.

All Yun had to do was flash some official documents and they were suddenly being attended to by overly earnest staff arranging their accommodation and transportation and settling other matters through phone calls.

That didn't mean the four of them were enthusiastic about the road trip though.

Granted, their ride was considered a state-of-the-art model in a still-developing country like Vietnam that was piecing itself back together after a long war but they were already rather sick of being stuck in an enclosed space together. The other option was renting a motorbike but that would take them double the time and frankly, the clunky vehicles didn't look all that safe.

"It will be over before you know it," Yun said placatingly although he didn't sound too sure of himself. 

"Someone please knock me out so that I don't have to go through this," Rowan muttered, massaging her temples.

Somehow, she only suffered motion-sickness when she was in an automobile. Trains? Aside from the vibrations and uneven tracks, fine. Buses? Tolerable, though she could do without the peak-hour crowd. Boats? The rise and fall of the waves make her nauseous but at least she could breathe in the salty sea breeze and feel better. Planes? Manageable. Cars? _Fuck no._

Elias slowly raised his hand to do as she requested but was stopped mid-way by Yun.

Once the car was parked in front of the sidewalk, the driver got out to transfer the two baggage that belonged to Yun and Injun into the trunk of the car while the four of them fought over who was riding shotgun.

"I get car-sick easily! I need to ride shotgun!" Rowan insisted.

"What does that have to do with riding in the front?" Elias said.

"Everything," Rowan retorted, oblivious to Injun and Yun playing ro-sham-bo to decide who was getting the shotgun seat. Yun threw paper and Injun threw rock.

"I win!" Yun darted to the car and opened the door, clambering in before the others could protest.

Rowan threw up her hands in a show of frustration before getting into the car and sliding all the way to the other end. Elias and Injun joined her with grumbles of their own.

Elias ended up being sandwiched in the middle, feeling squashed from both sides since he and Rowan both had broad shoulders while Injun had knobbly knees that dug into Elias' thigh when he shifted. It was too cramped for three growing youths but they had no choice but to suck it up.

Up in the front, Yun was monopolising the car radio and tuning in into various music stations.

Upbeat R&B music filled the car not long after and from the back, Elias could see Yun bopping his head along to the tune and he suppressed a smile which, unfortunately, did not unnoticed by Injun. The blond merely pretended he didn't see it lest he received another round of rib-poking and vicious tickles.

Elias had _really_ bony fingers and he did not want to relive the experience of having them stabbing into his sensitive areas. _'That man is ruthless,'_ Injun thought to himself with a repressed shudder, _'and obtuse.'_ But so was Yun.

As much as his friend claimed he and Elias got on like cat and dog, they naturally gravitated towards each other.

Mutual attraction to each other's looks, perhaps?

Injun doubted that Yun's feelings were as shallow as that. He remembered the way Yun would always perk up upon hearing the nobles' gossip about Elias' latest accomplishment and the way he would always search the crowd at function parties for something or someone in particular.

Contemplative, Injun glanced up at the rearview mirror and met Rowan's eyes in the reflection. She made a "the-fuck-do-you-want" expression and Injun shook his head slightly, smiling. Whatever was happening between Elias and Yun, it didn't matter as long as he had a partner-in-crime who was ready to give them grief about it.

Rowan was naturally averse to his company in the beginning but he liked to think that after discovering they shared the same interest in picking on Elias, she was a lot more civil towards him.

Their relationship was that of an employer and subordinate at worst. Co-conspirators at best. He didn't mind either.

It also helped that she shared the same sense of humour—lame puns, dirty innuendos and dark jokes. He was confident that their alliance would only strengthen from here on out whenever he recalled the memory of them playing board games on the train while making fun of Elias and Yun in secret with her making racy remarks in her rich contralto voice, wearing a handsome smirk, shuffling cards in her large pianist-like hands, laughing lowly, looking down at him with a challenging tilt of her chin, revealing a peek of defined abs whenever she stretched-

_Wait._

Almost as if Elias could sense his inner strife, he turned to him and arched a brow questioningly. A ghastly whiteness had overspread Injun's cheeks and a vein near his eye was twitching spastically and that was an immediate cause for concern. 

"How are you feeling?"

"I have a problem," Injun said in a horrified whisper, feeling as if his depraved thoughts about Rowan was leaking out of him like an old man with incontinence.

Elias nodded slowly. "Okay...? And are you going to do something about it?"

"Yeah. I'm going to ignore it by going to sleep." With that, he promptly leaned back and shut his eyes.

"Good luck with that," Elias deadpanned and faced forward again.

After thirty minutes of peace and quiet other than the faint music Yun was jamming to, Injun actually did fall asleep and Elias felt comfortable enough to initiate a conversation with Rowan about their earlier argument.

Weirdly, he didn't feel discomfited by the idea of Yun listening in since the boy had more or less figured out that he and Rowan weren't really on speaking terms back at the bar. As for the driver, he wasn't fluent in English so Elias didn't see a problem in revealing private things in his presence.

He wasn't ready to forgive Rowan just yet but he didn't want the awkwardness between them to hinder their teamwork if they were to undertake tasks together in the future. So here he was, struggling to strike up a conversation and air out his grievances. It was usually Rowan who took the lead whenever they chatted so it was hard for him to be the one to break the ice.

Socialising had never been his forte. Even when he was a child who was forced to make small talk with relatives and his parents' colleagues.

(They mainly cooed over his sword-fighting prowess and coaxed him to reveal confidential details about his parents while he half-listened to them, stone-faced.)

"Ro, can we talk?" he asked in a whisper, acutely aware of Yun's soft singing stopping abruptly.

The girl gave him a cursory look before turning back to the scenery. "We are talking right now."

Elias internally heaved a sigh of relief. That was as good as a green light from her.

"It's about our conversation on the train," he said warily as he took note of how she tensed up until she was sitting with her back ramrod-straight and how her leg began bouncing up and down more rapidly. Her body language was very expressive when her face wasn't.

"And?" she pressed, hugging her bag to her chest.

"I'm not going to be comfortable being alone with you from now on," Elias admitted though he knew he was actually just confirming what they both already knew. "But I don't want this to affect how we interact with each other if we have to work together in a life-or-death situation. Because out of everyone here, I still trust you the most even though I don't actually...trust you?"

Okay, why was talking to someone so hard?

Thankfully, Rowan didn't bring up his abysmal conversation skills. She nodded her head to show that she understood.

"You have your secrets and I have mine," Elias continued after her wordless encouragement. "And we aren't going to trust each other with our secrets. But in a fight, I don't want us to hesitate to make a move and that means we have to trust each other's abilities at the very least."

"We've already got that covered."

"Yes, and I think we've established that we'll kill for each other, no questions asked."

 _'But we won't die for each other.'_ Went unsaid.

As far as he was concerned, both him and Rowan weren't self-sacrificial idiots who liked to pretend to be heroes. Altruism was a non-existent concept in a dog-eat-dog world and they had both experienced the horrors of that world firsthand.

"We won't trust each other with our lives either," Rowan said without any inflexion.

"Right."

They descended into a heavy silence—one loaded with unspoken questions and doubts. After a moment of hesitation, Rowan relaxed and rested her head on Elias' shoulder. The lilac-haired boy barely reacted to it at first and took two whole minutes to ease into a more comfortable position. But he eventually allowed himself to place his cheek on Rowan's head as the tension ebbed out of his muscles.

This was nice. This was safe. They didn't need to go beyond this.

Elias' attention was then drawn to the front by the rustle of Yun's clothes and when he looked up, he saw Yun's face reflected in the rearview mirror. He had been watching and listening to them the whole time.

There was a gamut of emotions flashing across his countenance—too fast for the naked eye to discern each emotion though Elias swore he caught a convoluted mixture of envy and fondness—before Yun settled for a placid expression.

Once again, Yun had re-constructed his barriers and closed himself off.

Elias couldn't tell why he hated the notion of that so much—more so than necessary—for a mere acquaintance.

He decided to put it at the back of his mind alongside everything else Yun did.

* * *

The instant they reached the heart of Hanoi, everyone scrambled to get out of the car, all of them reasonably feeling suffocated and restless. Itching to stretch their legs, they took their luggage out of the trunk by themselves without waiting for the driver's assistance and made a beeline towards the entrance of their hotel.

It was in an upstate area so the hotel was well-furnished and clean to the extent of being sterile with a vintage kind of architecture that had been influenced by colonial-era French culture. It was fascinating to see the cultural blend of East and West, evident in the traditional Sino-Vietnamese motifs with French flair.

Foreigners had been dubbing Hanoi as the Paris of the East and Elias could sort of understand why now that he was seeing the city in its full glory. It was a rather contradictory place with its reputation as a city of austerity yet the people he walked past were clad in drabs and emaciated.

If this was what war did to Vietnam, he was afraid to see how his country would fare.

"I'll help you carry it," Rowan offered when she spotted Injun struggling to lift his baggage after shouldering her own backpack. She ignored his polite attempt at rebuffing her offer and strode over to take the baggage out of his hand, swinging it over her shoulder and bearing the burden without faltering even once.

Injun gawked at her momentarily before averting his gaze in a bashful manner. "Thank you."

"No problem."

"Wow." Yun stared at the sight before him with mouth agape as he walked over with his own bag. He almost couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Rowan effortlessly heft up Injun's bulky luggage when most porters they had come across in the past had nearly broken their spines transporting one of his bags. "Honestly, that's kinda hot."

Elias' brows involuntarily knitted together in a frown while Rowan let out a questioning "hm", looking as unperturbed as ever as she adjusted her bag. No strained expression; no trembling arms; nothing.

"How strong are you?" Yun said, impressed. "Jun's notorious for packing a lot of unnecessary shit when we go on trips. Usually, there are two or three people carrying one of his bags at a time."

"Why don't you just get a suitcase? You know, the one with the wheels?" Elias suggested.

"He always forgets to buy one no matter how many times I remind him," Yun said darkly, "I'll just get him one for his birthday." 

"Excuse you, I only pack my essentials," Injun said, slightly chastised.

"Essentials, right," Yun drawled, placing his hand on his hips and cocking them to the side, "you call your ten-step skincare routine an essential? I opened up your bag once and all I saw was a ton of facial cream, masks, scrubs and lotions. I'm surprised you managed to pack all that stuff in one bag this time around."

"Your _what?_ There are ten steps in your skincare routine?" Rowan looked aghast. "And what do you need all that stuff for!?"

"What else will I use to maintain my clear skin then?" Injun said defensively.

Rowan stared at him. "Oh, I don't know, maybe water and _one_ facial wash?"

As Elias expected, they began squabbling over how much facial cream was _too_ much while walking into the hotel.

Yun led them inside with Elias directly behind him and the bickering duo taking up the rear. Elias assumed two bodyguards would be flanking Yun but he was told they had been left behind in Anwei since they weren't needed. He did see the logic in Yun's decision since two (maybe three—he had yet to ask Injun if he was a wielder) out of four in their group knew magic and he himself was a skilled swordsman so they could easily defend themselves against threats.

(Still. Wasn't it better to be safe than sorry?)

Injun and Rowan finally ceased their heated discussion when they reached the receptionist's counter. Good, because Elias was one second away from smacking them over their heads and telling them to shut the fuck up. He was pretty sure they were the oldest out of all of them but they sure didn't act their age.

Injun and Yun proceeded to speak to the clearly overworked staff in hushed tones. Their volume progressively got louder as time went on, one side looking greatly distressed and the other side looking frustrated. Injun said something to smooth over the whole fiasco and the receptionist nodded her head, harried.

They returned to Elias and Rowan, looking weary and displeased all the same.

"They're overbooked. Even the suites aren't available. They only have one fucking room left," Injun explained, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Only one room?" Elias frowned.

Yun let out a huff. "It should be fine. They'll move a mattress into the room for us apparently. So if you guys are fine with sharing a room, we'll stay here for the rest of the trip. If not, we'll check out other hotels."

"I'm fine with it," Elias said quickly. He was too tired to drag himself around the city in search of another lodging. In addition, it was already in the evening and he was ready to sleep for twelve hours straight after a whole day of travelling. He didn't manage to fall asleep on the train or in the car and the last time he slept was in the forest on a bed of dry leaves.

So yes, he was practically dead on his feet.

That must be why he was getting crankier too. Hopefully, Rowan and Injun did not test his patience tonight or they would find themselves sleeping in the streets.

(Yun would probably stop him before he could make that happen.)

"No problem here," Yun said.

Injun shrugged, not really caring as long as he got to lie down on a soft surface instead of sleeping upright.

The three males then turned to Rowan, half-expecting her to shoot down the idea. It would make sense since she was the only girl and even if it wasn't due to a sense of propriety (which she most likely didn't have), she might still feel uncomfortable.

To their surprise, she agreed.

"I've roomed with a guy before, don't look so shocked," she said.

"Your boyfriend?" Injun asked tentatively.

Rowan stared at him with an unreadable expression. "My brother. And I've never had a boyfriend."

"Oh." Injun seemed to brighten.

"She had a girlfriend," Elias added and Yun shot him a look, probably wondering why he felt the need to bring that up. Well, if Injun was thinking what Elias thought he was thinking, it was better to clarify things than give him false hope.

Injun deflated, shoulders drooping a little and the hope in his eyes extinguishing. His dejection would have been imperceptible if Elias wasn't observant as his face remained politely curious.

"Yeah," Rowan muttered, reminiscing about her idyllic days with her deceased lover. The wound was still too fresh. "You guys aren't homophobic, are you?"

"No," Elias said. It would have been hypocritical of him if he was.

"Definitely not," Yun said sincerely.

Injun shook his head frantically.

"Good." She paused. "I'm bisexual."

Injun cheered up again. Elias was tempted to facepalm. He wondered how the blond's mood swings still hadn't given him a whiplash.

"I'm pan," Elias said, deciding he might as well come out too. Not because he didn't want Rowan to feel like she was being alienated or anything.

He chanced a look at Rowan anyway and was taken aback by what he saw.

The expression that appeared on Rowan's visage upon hearing him could only be described as _soft._ And that was a word he would never expect to associate with the fierce, brawny girl but the look she was giving him proved him wrong. It was a cross between affectionate, grateful and happy and he didn't know how she was capable of conveying all three feelings at once but she managed to do so with one smile.

It was kind of unnerving. But in a good way. He had never given anyone a reason to smile like that.

Not even his sister.

On cue, his chest constricted with the pain of his loss. Like Rowan, it was still a fresh wound.

(But was it? He had lost her years ago. The wound was festering by now yet time had not healed it.)

"Pan?" Injun repeated, drawing Elias out of his trance.

The dull pang in his chest subsided once he forced back the snippets of memories. They returned to the darkest recesses of his mind, being buried under a pile of happy images until they would once again be unearthed by any reminder of her.

"Pansexual."

Injun's face turned blank and Elias could tell that he was thinking about frying pans and once again, he resisted the urge to facepalm.

"Pansexual means that you're attracted to people of all genders. Not frying pans." He ignored Injun's feeble sputtering. "I don't really care about people's sex. Beautiful people are beautiful people," said Elias. He then surreptitiously looked at Yun to gauge his reaction since the boy was rather subdued all of a sudden.

He found Yun with his head lowered and hands wringing the front of his shirt. He was also staring pointedly at the ground as though the secrets of the universe laid in the tacky furred carpeting.

Elias could tell Yun was being honest when he said he wasn't homophobic but was talking about it a different subject entirely? Maybe he just wasn't used to people openly addressing it in public.

His attention returned to Injun who shifted his weight from side to side, looking both pensive and cautious as though he was dying to say or ask something but was holding back in fear of being judged.

Elias knew that feeling all too well.

"Spit it out," Rowan said, her words callous but her tone gentle.

"How did you find out you were bisexual?" he said and winced, expecting a scornful reply.

Rowan's eyes softened. "Well, since young, I've always liked girls more than boys so I thought I was lesbian for a short while. But then I started noticing a specific type of boys."

"Specific?" Elias tilted his head to the side.

"En. Pretty boys," she confessed, running her hand through her hair with her gaze flitting from the floor to the ceiling to Injun and so on. Elias mentally noted that her touching her hair and avoiding eye-contact were nervous tics of hers. "More slender, more feminine...shorter and younger than me preferably."

_Oh._

Lucky for Injun, he fit her ideal type to a tee.

 _'They must have really gotten closer during the train ride,'_ Elias thought idly, biting back a smile.

The blond seemed to have realised that too since he emitted a strangled "eep" sound and was blushing from head to toe. At least he managed to fight back his grin or else his feelings would truly be on display for everyone to see.

Elias was starting to catch on that subtlety was not Injun's strong suit.

"Hey guys, I think they're done. We can go to our rooms now," Yun piped up and Injun and Rowan startled, looking a tad bemused to see him as if they had forgotten that he was present. Elias didn't blame them; Yun was very out-of-place in this conversation in which he contributed nothing to.

"Are you okay?" Elias couldn't help but ask.

Yun's default placid smile was already in place. Albeit, it looked more tight-lipped than usual.

Most people hid their emotions and thoughts behind an infallible blank mask but Yun hid them behind a smile that was neither sad nor happy. It meant nothing. It was just the movement of the lips and a shape that formed along with the movement.

Elias hated it.

"I'm fine."

Without waiting for them to respond, Yun picked up his luggage and headed towards the elevators. The other three could only follow after him as he brought them to their room on the third floor.

Once they unlocked it, they were greeted with the sight of a spacious room with a kitchenette and an adjoining bathroom. For a pricier room, it was rather sparse on the ornate detailing; more geometrical than classical. The colours were in the palate of a beach—the hues ranging from golden sand to the rich wood of a fishing boat.

The walls were sandy yellow—homely and easy on the eye—while the bed frames were a deep hickory-brown. The rest of the room had teal blue accents that resembled tiny waves to match the beach theme.

Speaking of the beds, an air mattress was set up next to the bed on the far right. In total, there were only three beds.

Sighing in exasperation, Yun lifted the heel of his palm to knead his forehead.

Injun and Rowan turned to look at each other and they seemed to share a telepathic message since they both sprung into action, dropping everything on their person and sprinting towards the beds. Rowan sprawled herself out on the air mattress while Injun faceplanted on the bed beside it.

"I CALL DIBS!" they shouted in unison.

Yun blinked owlishly, looking lost. On the other hand, Elias directed a glare at the duo, immediately figuring out their ulterior motive.

Injun then propped himself up on his elbow and said with faux innocence, "Oh, that means you two have to share the bed."

Yun, for the first time since Elias met him, looked uncertain. Nervous, in fact. Elias would be lying if he said it wasn't refreshing to see a new side of him—one that wasn't always self-assured; one that felt human emotions too.

"I can always call them to bring in another mattress," Yun told Elias with a smile that was fraying at the edges, his hands wringing the fabric of his jumpsuit again. If he kept up with that habit, he would wrinkle all his clothes.

Elias sighed and waved a flippant hand, taking it in stride. "Do whatever you want. I'm going to bed. You can join me if you want, I don't mind."

He rummaged through Yun's luggage for his clothes and took out a random black t-shirt. In one swift motion, he divested himself of his turtleneck, uncaring if there were any spectators (there were) scrupulously watching the ripple of his back muscles. He then put on the new article of clothing which was rather tight around his torso but it would have to do.

He would have taken off his jeans as well but it was too much of a hassle to pull his legs out of the tight-fitting fabric. Plus, he didn't want to turn this into an all-out strip show, especially when a woman was in the room.

After slipping out of his shoes and letting down his long lilac hair from its ponytail, Elias headed to the right side of his chosen bed and removed the sheets. He climbed onto the mattress and let his head flopped back on a plush pillow, pulling the covers up to his shoulders. He was just about to close his eyes when Yun said: "You're not brushing your teeth?"

Elias let out a guttural growl. "Fuck."

He didn't think he could muster the energy to get up again.

"It's fine if he skip for tonight. It's not like he's going to kiss anyone with that mouth any time soon," Rowan said, sounding amused.

Elias grumbled "fuck off" to her though it probably sounded incoherent and shut his eyes, feeling the full effects of the fatigue that had been plaguing him the whole day. It felt like his bones weighed twice as much whenever he was tired and dragging around that metaphorical weight the entire day was enough to knock him out instantly.

It had barely been a minute and his breathing had already evened out into soft snores. The tautness of his face also disappeared, leaving it free of worry lines and severity.

"Damn, he looks really different when he's asleep," Rowan said after a minute of radio silence.

Injun grunted in agreement and rolled off his bed. "I'm going to take a shower." He walked over to his baggage and unzipped it, fishing out multiple packets of face cream and carrying them all to the bathroom.

Rowan watched him go with a half-horrified, half-judgemental expression.

Meanwhile, Yun was staring at the empty spot beside Elias, fidgeting in place and having an internal debate with himself.

"He said he doesn't mind," Rowan reminded Yun.

"He could have said it just to be nice," Yun said pointedly.

Rowan nearly cackled. "Elias? Nice? Have you ever heard him say anything untrue just to be nice?"

Yun was about to refute but then thought better of it.

Rowan levelled him with a look that screamed: "I'm-right-you're-wrong-so-just-fucking-do-it-already".

"Fine!" he said, a little too loudly since Elias stirred in his sleep. Clamping his mouth shut, Yun turned on his heels and decided to change into his nightwear.

Once all three of them were done doing their washing up, Yun turned to the other two with a grimace. "What if I cling onto him like I did on the train?'

"So? I don't see the problem?" Injun said from his sedentary position on his bed. His limbs were splayed out all over the bed and he looked like an oversized starfish, much to his friends' amusement.

"But-"

"Look, he won't put up with anything he's uncomfortable with. If he gives you the go-ahead, he means it. He already let both of us use him as a pillow today," Rowan said.

She wasn't sure if she was imagining it but for a fraction of a second, the look Yun gave her was...

 _Bitter_.

But after she blinked her eyes, he was back to being uneasy and conflicted.

That was odd.

"It really is okay, dude. You heard her. Besides, that man looks like he needs a hug sometimes," Injun said with a faint laugh, rolling onto on his side. "He didn't even complain or move when you cuddled him in your sleep on the train."

Red overtook Yun's cheeks, the bright colour standing out starkly against his pale skin.

"Shut up," he muttered as he climbed into bed, pretending he didn't hear the two of them sniggering. He still couldn't believe Injun, his best friend of eight years, was banding with someone else to make fun of him although they had only known each for a few hours.

They really were made for each other.

Taking care not to jostle the prone form of Elias, he slipped under the covers while checking the boy for any sign of his sleep being disturbed. Thankfully, he remained as still as a statue aside from his chest moving up and down. With his long hair fanned out underneath his head and a few fine strands artfully framing his angular face, he really did look angelic.

Yun averted his gaze before the other two could catch him staring creepily at Elias for longer than necessary.

"Well, good night guys." Rowan reached over to the bedside table to turn the lamplight off.

The room was immediately enveloped with darkness as the wan light of the moon streaming through the slit between the curtains attached to the floor-to-ceiling window barely illuminated half of the room.

Yun tucked his hands against his chest and curled up into a foetal position, putting a sizeable distance between the two of them. His own heartbeat was too loud in the stillness of their room so he tried to slow his breathing to match Elias, surprised to find that his inner turmoil dissipated with each shaky breath.

Relatively calmer, Yun shut his eyes and willed himself to fall asleep.

Hopefully, for both their sakes, this distance between them would not close up overnight. 

* * *

Morning arrived too soon.

Yun awakened to the distant sound of cooing and giggling and it took several seconds for his half-asleep brain to process that the incessant sounds belonged to Rowan and Injun. Blinking away the sleep pooling on his lids, he peeled open his eyes and saw black. He reeled back slightly—wondering if he still had his eyes closed—and discovered that he was locked in place.

Slightly panicking now, he squirmed about but stopped, his breath hitching, when he heard a muted groan from above him.

Breath catching in his throat, Yun peered up and saw the smooth pale column of Elias' neck.

Oh. Oh no.

Mildly alarmed but no longer frantic, Yun assessed his situation. He could hear the steady thumping of Elias' heartbeat near his ear and feel the rise and fall of his broad chest beneath his fingers which were hooked onto the soft fabric of the t-shirt Elias had worn to bed last night.

The weight of Elias' arm—which had been caging him the whole time—felt comforting instead of heavy or oppressing but he still felt a spike of panic when he realised they were _cuddling._ This was exactly what he was afraid of. Their legs were tangled around each other, their bodies were flushed against each other, Yun's head was tucked under Elias' chin, Elias was holding him in his arms, Yun was feeling up Elias' chest and he was panicking and-

Did he mention he couldn't breathe?

"Jesus, I wish I have a camera. This is so cute, Ro, hold my sandwich."

"I'll hold your fucking sandwich if you hold me, holy shit, they are _cuddling, I am emotional._ The next thing we know, they'll be getting _married_."

"Oh my God, I'm planning their wedding. It _has_ to be a spring wedding."

"What? An autumn wedding is better."

"Who let you plan the wedding?"

"Who let _you_ plan the wedding?"

 _'No one is planning a fucking wedding because there won't be one!'_ Yun wanted to scream. Instead, he extracted himself from Elias' protective embrace with the utmost care so that he wouldn't wake him.

(He pretended he didn't feel the cliché sensation of butterflies fluttering amock in his stomach after hearing Elias unwittingly let out a despondent sound when he moved out of his reach.)

Sitting up, Yun fixed the duo with an unimpressed glower. The intimidating aspect of his glare was probably ruined by his rumpled clothes, messy bedhead and flushed cheeks but it still delivered the message successfully since the two of them stopped in the middle of their dispute over the type of cake they would serve at Yun and Elias' wedding when they felt his stare drilling holes into them.

_-Vanilla! Yun likes vanilla!_

_-What is he? A basic bitch? Pistachio rose semolina cake is the better choice. El will agree with me on this._

_-That's goddamn pretentious. Even for him._

They smiled at him sheepishly though Yun was absolutely certain they didn't feel an ounce of guilt about going over his wedding plans when he was literally in the same room as them. They probably only felt bad that they woke him up.

"Hey, man. Did you sleep well?" Rowan asked with a knowing glint in her eyes.

"It was okay," Yun said curtly, feeling too groggy to deal with their bullshit this early in the morning.

"It's already noon. You must have been exhausted," Injun said, knowing him well enough to accurately guess what he was thinking.

Yun made a noncommittal sound and looked up at Injun, his features schooled into a neutral expression that set off all the alarms in Injun's head. That expression was reserved solely for emergencies or emotional meltdowns and based on his weird mood swings yesterday, it could be _either_.

It was safe to say that Injun was freaking out now. On the outside, however, he sobered completely.

"Rowan, Yun and I are going to have a private chat in the bathroom. Don't listen in," Injun said in a tone that brooked no arguments.

Rowan stared at him, nonplussed. "In the _bathroom_? Oh. Okay. Sure. Cool."

"Don't make this weird."

"Sorry."

Yun got out of bed and Injun immediately dragged him into the bathroom. Once the door was locked behind them, Injun looked at Yun in the eye and bluntly asked him what was wrong, no longer in the jesting mood.

"It's about Elias," Yun blurted out.

Injun winced. "Is it about the jokes? If you're uncomfortable, we'll stop. We didn't mean anything serious about it."

"No, no, that's not the main problem. I mean, yes, I'll like it if you two didn't drag him into this since he might hate it but I don't dislike it and I feel bad for liking it when you tease us about it but I want you to stop in case he hates it but I don't and god, I don't know what I'm saying anymore." Yun covered his face with his head and inhaled shakily, sounding like he was on the verge of tears. "What's wrong with me?"

Injun was quiet for a long while.

When he spoke again, it was in a familiar soothing tone he used back when they were younger and Yun had come up to him crying about things as trivial as his scraped knee or as serious as him missing his mother. Hearing it again only dredged up memories of the past and it made Yun want to sob even more.

"Yun, is this about the conversation yesterday?" Injun didn't have to elaborate on which conversation it was.

"Yes." Yun snivelled. He hadn't even shed a tear yet but his nose was already getting clogged up. Ugh, morning sinuses.

"And what about it?" Injun said, still sounding painfully kind and forbearing.

"I don't know," Yun said truthfully through his sniffing, "I don't know what's wrong with me."

"Come on now, just because you're upset, it doesn't mean something is wrong with you. It's normal. There might be something wrong with the situation but not with you. Never with you." Injun grabbed Yun's hand and patted it comfortingly as the latter sat down on the lid of the toilet bowl. "Start with the Elias thing. You like it when we joke about you and Elias being...being an item?"

Yun took a moment to ponder over this. "Yes..."

"Do you know why?"

"I-" Yun hesitated.

Injun waited patiently. That was the thing: Injun was always patient with him. Since they were kids and even until now. He was the elder sibling Yun had always wanted.

"I...I like him." Yun's throat seized up instantaneously after uttering this hushed confession and he tried to bring his hands up to his face but Injun clasped them tighter in his.

It felt like a monumental moment to say it out loud and his acknowledgement of his own feelings shook Yun to the very core.

His problem was real now that he admitted it. Since young, it had only ever been a passing thought, a fleeting concern, an abstract concept; but now, it was tangible and it hung in the air between them like dirty laundry.

"Hey, hey, don't hide. There's nothing to be ashamed of."

"But, but, I like-" He couldn't finish the sentence. He couldn't.

"Elias is a guy, yes." Injun nodded his head slowly. "But we've seen men being with men before, haven't we? In those gardens and alcoves in the mansion at function parties...we didn't find it weird or disgusting, did we? I mean, we did find the shameless public intimacy disgusting but not the fact that they were both men."

Yun choked out a tremulous "yes".

"Exactly." Injun paused, trying to find the right words to say. "I think we should have talked about this years ago but I've never brought it up since I didn't want to pry into your business and make you uncomfortable." He expelled a breath and hung his head. "That was a mistake. Because now you're being forced to face your feelings and it's overwhelming, I get it. We shouldn't have put it off just because we were afraid to deal with something new, something different."

"Mhm," Yun said tearily.

"You're clearly fine with the idea of same-sex relationships but you've never expected you wanted to be in one yourself, correct?"

"E-En."

"Okay, that's understandable. There's nothing wrong with that," Injun said firmly.

Yun suppressed a sob. "It's just—I don't think I've ever liked men. Or women. I've never looked at anyone in that way except-"

Realisation dawned on Injun as he sifted through his memories.

Yun searching for a hesd of lilac at galas; Yun asking about the Everstieds at every formal gathering; Yun staring wistfully at the rows of swords in the armoury; Yun frantically scanning through every prison record in search of a particular name and Yun looking Injun in the eye and declaring: "I want him on my team."

Injun had always thought it was a child's hero worship and nothing more.

"I'm so stupid," Injun whispered, bewildered by the fact that he had unconsciously been turning a blind eye to Yun's attraction all these years. "It had always been him. Ever since that incident, it had always been Elias, oh my fucking god-"

"If you're stupid, I'm a complete dumbass," Yun murmured, curling his freezing toes against the linoleum floor. "I went and fell for a guy completely out of my league. He doesn't even remember–"

"Who said he's out of your league?" Injun said, indignant. " _You're_ too good for that spoiled rich kid."

"I'm spoiled and rich too," Yun said, instinctually defending his crush.

"That's different." Injun scoffed. "You make it look cute. He just makes it look annoying."

A wet chuckle slipped out before Yun could reign it in. "I'm pretty sure you're just biased."

Injun puffed out his cheeks but said nothing to deny it.

"Do you think there's a label for...for what I am? Like bisexual for Rowan and pansexual for Elias. I think I'll feel better if I can put a label to it."

"I don't know," Injun said, sounding a tad melancholic, "I don't know much about this at all. Rowan probably knows the term but she'll figure it out if we asked. Do you want her to know?"

"I don't want to tell her but if she figured it out on her own, it's fine. She won't judge," Yun said in a small voice.

Injun hummed in agreement, crouching down in front of Yun. "She won't."

For the first time this morning, Yun felt a sliver of glee. "You like her, don't you?"

A scowl marred Injun's delicate features but it had no real heat behind it. "Yeah. But she has a girlfriend."

" _Had_. And I haven't heard her mention her at all so they're probably not together anymore."

"She could have just broken up with her recently. I think she's emotionally unavailable."

"She'll have to move on someday," Yun pointed out, "then you'll have a chance."

Injun gave him a rueful smile—all brittle and sharp at the edges like glass. "We'll see."

Their conversation came to a brief lull as they stared at nothing in particular, lost in their own thoughts.

"We better go out there or they'll get suspicious," Yun said after a minute or two.

Injun snorted. "You really think they'll suspect us of plotting their murders in a bathroom of all places?"

Yun stared at him pointedly. "No, something worse."

"Something—oh good lord, _hell no._ Even if I didn't like women, I would never—ew! You're like my little brother!"

"You don't need to tell _me_ that."

"Valid point. Are you alright now?"

"I'll get there. I needed this."

"I know."

Once they left the confines of their bathroom, both of them were in a far better mood.

They found Elias dragging himself out of bed with Rowan at the corner furthest away from the bathroom flipping through a magazine. A rush of appreciation and fondness for the girl surged through Yun and he wondered why he had ever kept his distance from her out of a misplaced sense of jealousy.

She had respected their wishes and didn't even mention anything about their brief talk when she saw them exiting the bathroom.

"Good morning," Elias greeted when Yun entered his peripheral view. "Did you sleep well?"

Yun faltered in his tracks upon being addressed to directly. It had felt freeing to face his feelings head-on with Injun but to face the person he harboured those feelings for was a whole other situation.

"Yun?" Elias called with worry leaking into his voice when he took long to respond.

"I'm fine," he said automatically. But when he reflected upon it, he realised he was okay. Better than okay. His mind had been clearer than it had been in days and the vexing knot in his chest had been undone after Injun helped him sort through his tumultuous emotions.

He was fine. He was going to be.

"I'm fine," he repeated. Firmly, this time around.

And judging by Elias' small yet seraphic smile, he believed it too.


	4. Vietnam National Circus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tfw you're legit fighting for your life in a pillow fight and your stronger friend is happily oblivious to it and just smacking the shit out of you
> 
> is this oddly specific?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> since it's pretty much established that there are a lot of greatest showman elements in this story in general (the other side song and the circus), i'll be making a lot of references to that movie during the circus performances ;)
> 
> note!! i'm using the name of an actual circus but the people and shows/performances are completely fictitious!!
> 
> and im so stupid, i just realised guns already exist in the nineties. the fuck is a sword supposed to do up against a gun?? sure in close-range, a sword will be better but it won't matter if a bullet blows out your brain before u can even come five feet close.
> 
> it's fine. i'll fix this plot hole. somehow.
> 
> #bullshitting101

By the time Elias was done taking a shower, Yun and Injun had gone out to check the lunch menu provided by the hotel. In the meantime, Rowan was lying on her front on her air mattress, using the TV remote to switch from channel to channel while humming the jaunty tune of Candy Store from the Heathers musical.

She glanced up when she saw Elias stepping out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. Without even batting an eye, she turned back to the black-and-white TV screen mounted to the wall across their beds.

"Have you eaten breakfast?" Elias asked, gathering his sopping wet hair in one hand as he walked over to his bed.

Rowan switched to a random drama broadcast before replying, "Yeah. I just boiled some cup noodles for me and Jun. I ate like two of them since we skipped dinner last night."

"How about Yun?" Elias took an extra towel from the clothing rack and sat down on the edge of the mattress beside Rowan. "He woke up late too, didn't he?"

"Mhm. He hasn't eaten anything yet. That's why he went downstairs with Jun to see if the hotel is serving anything good for lunch. If not, we'll go out to eat. But the quality of the food in roadside restaurants are apparently really bad so."

"It'll be fun to explore the city though."

"Nah, it ain't worth it. The city is still in shambles after the war. Not much to look at. I rather just stay in this room until eight. We'll leave for the circus then. Besides, we have to come up with a plan and we can't exactly do that in public."

Elias made a noncommital sound of understanding and raked his fingers through his split ends. Water trickled down the expanse of his back and chiselled torso, glistening like pearls on his ivory skin and Rowan wished Yun was here to see this view. He would _freak._

"Why did you grow out your hair?" Rowan said, planting her face in the crook of her elbow. "It's so tiring maintaining long hair. That's why I cut mine short."

With eyes downcast, Elias wrung out the last of the water in his hair with the now drenched towel. Fragmented memories of a lopsided smile on a face so similar to his flickered through his head like a slideshow. For a second, he allowed himself to wallow in his sorrows. "I did it as a dare and I ended up liking it."

Rowan grimaced in an overexaggerated manner. "Narcissistic much?"

Elias scoffed, shoving down his cumbersome feelings so that he could speak through the growing lump in his throat. "I recall you calling me pretty boy the first time we met."

"It was meant to be sarcasm, not an actual compliment. Heavens forbid your head grows bigger than it already is," Rowan snarked.

Like the mature adult he was, Elias flipped her the finger and she let out a chuckle—low and contained but genuinely amused nonetheless.

With the background sound of the TV, woven strands of sunlight awashing their room in a pleasant glow and the incomprehensible chatter and buzz of the streets below their window, it was far too easy to bask in the lazy atmosphere and pretend.

Pretend for a moment that they weren't on a suicide mission to launch a coup d'état. Pretend for a moment that they were just four friends on a backpacking trip around the world, surviving on cheap food and making pit-stops at seedy motels with shitty customer service.

Pretend for a moment that they were just like any other teenager.

"Put on some clothes before Yun comes back, you sexy bastard. If he sees you like this, he's gonna jump you."

And the moment was ruined.

"ROWAN HALE!"

Yun and Injun opened the door to see Rowan pitching off her mattress and diving behind the kitchenette counter, shrieking, as Elias flung a volley of pillows at her with one hand while the other held onto his loosening towel around his hips. As if they were suddenly thrown into a B-rated porno, the towel slid down slightly—just _slightly_ —to unveil a tantalising slip of his defined V-line dipping downwards into an area obscured by cotton.

Hearing a sharp intake of air, Injun turned to Yun whose intense gaze was following a trail of droplets.

"You're drooling," Injun couldn't help but remark drolly.

Yun hurriedly dabbed his chin with his hand and found that it was dry. He glared at Injun and was about to reply with something witty when Injun was walloped over the head by a stray pillow with so much force that he toppled over, letting out a sound like a seagull's squawk. The words on the tip of Yun's tongue died and were replaced with a loud laugh as he watched Injun pick himself up and lunge for Rowan with the pillow in hand to exact revenge on her.

Inevitably, the pillow fight soon escalated into an all-out war on three fronts.

Elias rushed into the bathroom to throw on some clothes before returning into the throes of battle with renewed fury upon discovering that Injun was hoarding all the pillows. Meanwhile, Rowan had upgraded to throwing globes of fire (hopefully the harmless kind) at anything in the room that moved while Yun remained in the safe compounds of the kitchenette and manipulated certain objects to trip up Injun or make them float and intercept Rowan's jets of fire.

Basically, he was contributing to the chaos from the sidelines while taking cover like a coward.

Smart.

But that wouldn't do.

Since he didn't have any pillows as ammunition, Elias balled up the towel he had used to dry his hair and took aim before hurling at Yun. It hit him directly in the face and the fact that Yun looked utterly betrayed as he looked in Elias' direction was enough to make him laugh and distract him from the incoming attack.

By the time Elias noticed something amiss, a flaming orb had already struck him in the chest and although it did not sear, it was strong enough to push him a few steps back upon impact. He had to windmill his arms to right himself just as the orb dissolved in a shower of fiery sparks. Once his sight cleared, he could see the unmistakable devilish grin Rowan was giving him.

"Are your reflexes failing you, pretty boy?" she goaded cheerfully, igniting another ball of fire.

"Give me a break! I haven't eaten anything yet!" Elias said indignantly and dashed straight towards Injun to snatch one of the pillows from his pile.

Dodging more flaming orbs, he rounded on Rowan and repeatedly whacked her over the head with the pillow until they were both giggling hysterically and Rowan was begging for mercy, raising her hands over her head to defend herself.

Out of nowhere, a body glomped Elias from the side and he was tackled to the ground. He let out a gasp and looked up at Yun's effervescent gold eyes and playful grin before he was assaulted by a mouthful of cushion tassels.

"Yun! Not the face!" he choked out with bouts of laughter punctuating his shrill screams as Yun made up for his previous lack of participation with excess brutality by raining down light but unyielding smacks on him.

"GO FOR THE FACE, YEAH, YOU'RE DOING GREAT SWEETIE!" He heard Injun holler encouragingly at Yun from the other side of the room.

Reaching out with his hands blindly, Elias grabbed the boy straddling him by the hips and with a quick burst of energy, rolled them over, eliciting a yelp from him. With his long hair draping over his shoulder and tickling against Yun's neck, he loomed over Yun with a devastatingly roguish grin.

He didn't know what possessed him to pin down Yun by the shoulders and say to him through laboured breathing: "I win".

He let himself revel in the sight of Yun gaping up at him through his fringe with ruddy-red cheeks and dilated eyes before releasing the boy a tad reluctantly. Blocking out the rational part of his mind which was screaming at him the entire time, Elias picked himself up and lobbed the tassel cushion Yun had dropped at a preoccupied Injun's head.

It pained him to admit it but he didn't dare look at Yun in the eye after the fight was over (Injun called for a truce because he was getting hungry). Yun didn't look too keen to bring it up either, considering how he elected to pretend nothing had happened by offering to order room service.

"I'm too tired to go back all the way down, let's just order in," said Yun, already dialling a number, "we can afford it anyway."

"Damn rich people," Rowan said without any real heat to her words.

"The Pho Ga sounds good." Injun tapped the laminated paper of the menu. "It's chicken noodle soup."

"I'll get that," said Elias.

"They have grilled pork and noodles." Rowan persistently tugged on the back of Yun's shirt to get his attention. "Get me that please."

Like a tired mother of three, Yun nodded absent-mindedly and signalled to her that he heard her as he prattled off their orders.

Elias frowned at Rowan. "You told me you ate two cups of instant noodles for breakfast."

"Yeah, so?"

"And you're having noodles _again_? For lunch?"

Rowan made a face at Elias. "Is my diet a cause of concern for you?"

"Get her a side of vegetables too," Elias told Yun, ignoring Rowan's loud protests.

Yun gave him an "ok" sign while Injun looked far too amused by her betrayed expression.

Fifteen minutes later, a spread of colourful Vietnamese food sat before them on a sizeable circular table brought in by the staff. There was enough meat to cater to Rowan's picky palate as well as various sautéed vegetables that Elias dumped into Rowan's bowl with a stern command for her to finish it all.

"Yes, Dad," Rowan grumbled, morosely shoving a leafy cabbage into her mouth while Yun deftly picked up crabmeat rolls and slices of garlic to add to Injun's already overflowing plate with a pair of chopsticks.

Injun and Rowan exchanged exasperated looks.

"Asian parents," Injun mouthed to Rowan with a fond roll of his eyes.

 _'Asian parents,'_ Rowan agreed internally with a solemn nod. She gave Elias a mutinous glare which he remained impervious to when he spooned another serving of bitter watercress into her bowl of soup. Goddamnit, she had _barely_ finished the last portion.

She had just picked up her chopsticks again when this time around, Yun placed several cubes of tofu on the top of her rice mound.

The wooden chopsticks in her hand snapped into two.

If the others looked closely at her, they would see a blood vessel threatening to burst at her temple.

 _'These two bastards are treating me as if I'm their love child.'_ Rowan's eye twitched as she set down her broken chopsticks. _'Am I not the oldest!?'_

"You don't act like it," Yun deadpanned and shovelled a strip of meat and rice into his mouth.

Oh, she had said it out loud.

" _Anyway_ , what's the plan?" Rowan said in a not-so-discreet attempt to change the subject.

It worked however when Injun hummed contemplatively to himself before replying, "Yun's status should let us have a free pass into the backstage after the performance is over. We'll look for Shin Yoona then and request for her aid."

"You're making this sound way less complicated than it actually is." Elias eyed Yun and Injun critically. "Do we just go up to her and tell her: 'Hey, why don't you help us overthrow the government? It'll be fun.' I can imagine that going well."

"We'll bribe her if worst comes to worst. Hardly anyone says no to money," Yun said, "we _need_ her. She's vital to a specific part of our plan. Just like you."

"Oh right, I've been meaning to ask you," Rowan spoke up, "I know you need Elias because he is a great fighter and he will adapt easily to militaristic conditions but you've placed emphasis on his swordsmanship skills before. What do you need them for? Nowadays, the Everstied family only train their children because of tradition. Not because they believe they will have any actual use for swords. Guns exist, you know."

Elias nodded. "Exactly. Why did you go through so much to retrieve my sword?"

A scheming glint formed in Yun's eyes—one that was progressively becoming familiar to Elias. It brought out the brilliant gold of his irises and the natural rosiness of his cheeks. His cherubic features coupled with his honeyed words must be how he inveigled so many men into swearing fealty to him.

Many were helpless in the face of the silver-tongued devil. Even the strong-willed.

Even Elias.

_'Temptress.'_

His mind was going to keep associating Yun with that adjective, wasn't it?

Flushing, Elias tuned back in to Yun's explanation.

"Guns are obviously the most common weapons in war and typically, swords are no match against them in combat."

" _Typically_?" Rowan said pointedly.

Injun smiled, knowing and smug. "As a wielder, you know that we can imbue our magic into objects and even people, right?"

"Yeah, that's how most talismans are created."

"Do you know what the effects on those objects are?'

"Well." Rowan tapped her chin, deep in thought. "Let's say I imbue my fire magic into an apple. The more of my magic that I transfer into it, the more it heats up until it eventually implodes."

"But if you controlled it to a certain extent?"

Rowan frowned. "Then the apple will just be fucking hot. Where are you going with this?"

Yun slapped his palm against his forehead. "Okay, let's not go with the apple and fire magic example. Let's say I imbue my magic into Elias' sword. The pure essence of my magic. Since my magic is working as a protective barrier as well as something that enhances the mundane nature of the sword, the sword will be more indestructible and sharper to an unnatural extent. It will be able to cut through flesh, bones and even impenetrable armour as if it was slicing through thin air."

Everyone fell silent as the dots slowly began to connect.

"We can't arm everyone in our resistance army with machine guns. They're costly and even if we can afford such a huge bulk, it will be suspicious if I place a shipment for them. This is a matter I won't be able to hide from my father," Yun said gravely. "But if we use small blades—be it daggers, kitchen knives, hell, even a metal pipe—we can turn them into war equipment. And swords can be easily forged. We have a blacksmith, a metal-wielder and Rowan. You three can work together to meld metals into weapons."

Rowan blinked. "You're right. My flames are hot enough to melt metal. I should be able to do that with some guidance."

The grin that bloomed on Yun's lips was full of unadulterated delight. "I know you can."

"What if people on the other side can tell we're using magic to help us in the war?" Elias asked. "Won't that stir up a different kind of war?"

Injun smiled again. But this particular smile held an undercurrent of danger to it and it made the fine hair on Elias' nape stand. "It's not like they will live long enough to spread the word."

"Injun," Rowan said disapprovingly. Though it wasn't about the insinuation of murder she disapproved of. "Is this another one of your half-assed plans? Fucking shit up and hoping for the best isn't the way to go about it. Though that's how I operate on a daily basis."

Injun looked genuinely offended by her accusation. "This is a revolution we're talking about. There are countless of lives on the line. Do you think we just amassed an army in one day? Do you think we tracked down and convinced magic-users and other capable fighters to join in less than an hour? We just got lucky with you two."

"We're used to navigating our way through the convoluted world of politics because treading the fine line between what's ethically right and what's legal requires a lot of thorough planning," Yun chimed in, "do you really think we're treating this whole thing as some kind of game? We've thought about all the possibilities and risks of involving magic in this war before making our decisions. We've planned everything down to the last detail and so far, nothing major has gone wrong."

Chastened, Rowan scowled but dutifully apologised.

"I've told you we have five users in our team, excluding Yun and I," Injun continued. "One who specialises in blood magic. One who can control nature including raw metals. One who can turn invisible and intangible. One who has a teleportation ability. And one who specialises in memories."

"Memories," Elias repeated airily.

Yun nodded. "It's a very intricate and esoteric branch of magic. He's a powerful user and one of our oldest recruits. He's way past his prime but his magic is still as potent as ever and he's willing to do whatever he can to help. He can erase memories, replace them with false memories, overwhelm someone with memories and rearrange them until a person can no longer tell the chronological order of their life."

Both Elias and Rowan paled.

"He can wipe several hundred people's memories at a time since his magic is really powerful and almost kinda sentient too since he developed it so much that it can barely be contained in his canister. His magic can instantly tell apart foes and allies so he doesn't risk targetting the wrong people."

"Jesus, he's overpowered as hell," Rowan said, awe writ large over her face.

"He's a hermit," Yun said, "meditating for years help nurture your spiritual canister apparently."

Rowan looked very tempted to shave her head, attain monkhood and meditate in the secluded mountains at that moment.

"He just helps out with the background stuff like gaining intel and covering up the existence of magic. He's not going to be on the frontline since it means killing people and going against his beliefs. Also because he's physically unable to."

"Basically, he cleans up after other users if they slip up in front of civilians who aren't apart of our team," Injun said, shrugging.

"Wow," Elias said eloquently, his brain taking quite some time to reboot after that information overload.

"You're a magic-user too?" Rowan addressed Injun. "I know Yun is telekinetic since I saw him moving stuff around during the pillow fight but I've never seen you do anything out of the ordinary."

"Ah, sorry, I can't tell you until you do the blood oath," Injun said, shaking his head. "My ability is top-secret. Anyone can take advantage of this sensitive info and we can't risk that."

"How mysterious," Rowan said flatly. Albeit, her interest was piqued.

"Shin Yoona will go through the same orientation process," Yun said, scraping his plate clean, "well, that is if she agrees to come back with us."

"There's always kidnapping."

"INJUN!"

* * *

For the next four hours or so, they watched a soap opera on the television together with Rowan and Yun insulting every cliché trope they came across while Injun seemed to be genuinely enjoying the predictable plot. Elias just stoned the whole time and used Rowan as his headrest again.

They ordered dinner before they started getting ready to leave for the circus and predictably, Elias and Rowan got into another row about her dietary preferences while the other two quietly sipped their pho soup on the sidelines.

Upon finishing their meal, they threw on their most inconspicuous-looking clothes and checked out of the hotel. Once they alighted from the cab, they followed the drunken sound of the carnival through a snarl of cramped lanes, wherefrom wooden carts displayed pink and blue cotton candies that beckoned to those with a sweet tooth with their sugary tufts; where children pranced about with inquisitive eyes scouring the festivity, and employees with welcoming smiles handed out various sweets from their assortment of treats in hand-woven baskets.

The fair grew louder as they traversed deeper, and the smells stronger—overcooked meats, roasting peanuts, tangy perfume and the asphyxiating smoke from coal fires all mixing together into something so sickly sweet that it thickened the very air. The whole scene was an assault on their senses. Finally, they reached a wide square where the carnival was in full, rollicking swing, packed with masses of people and brightly coloured tents and more activity than their eyes could take in at once.

Food stores lining the walkway drew in multiple people with their displays of cheap snacks, including Rowan. Yun had to drag her back every time she tried to slip away and buy candy floss with pointed reminders that they had already eaten dinner.

"But, but, candy," Rowan said sadly, looking far too much like an oversized wounded puppy as she cast a longing gaze towards the stands. Yun could almost imagine a pair of floppy ears drooping slightly atop her head.

Yun sighed and reached up to pat her head. "I'll get you some after the performance. Consider it a midnight-snack."

Rowan's eyes lit up like fireworks and she nodded eagerly. In instances like this, Yun found it difficult to correlate her age with the way she behaved.

"So this is what a carnival looks like," Injun breathed, drinking in the bustling ambience.

"And it's just as crowded as I expected," Elias said with a grimace of disdain as his shoulder jostled with someone else's.

Injun herded them to the vast two-toned tent housing the main attraction and Yun paid the entrance fee. Soon, they were admitted into the marquee where plenty of conversations were going on around them as people mingled with one another and chattered away. A few workers even tried to corral the throngs of visitors into a more orderly formation but of course, their efforts were futile.

Nearly bursting at the seams with anticipation, Rowan sprinted up the steps to the VIP stands and hollered at them to hurry up. The stairs were carpeted in rich purple though it was gradually turning into a dusty brown beneath their shoes as they clambered upward with the rest of the crowd which slowly filtered away through doors into the stands to their left and right.

Yun's party kept climbing, and at last, they reached the top of the staircase and found themselves in a small box set at the highest point of the tent. Pushing forward with a burst of speed, Rowan dashed up the remaining stairs to reserve the best seats in the house—the front row. The rest quickened their pace to match hers and made their way to the top where it was mostly empty save for two or three people who appeared rather disgruntled that Rowan had staked her claim on the frontmost seats.

In order of their tickets, Injun sat down first, followed by Yun and Elias and Rowan.

The VIP section filled up over the next ten minutes or so and Rowan was jittering with pent-up energy from waiting too long for the start of the show. To distract her, Injun talked over Yun and Elias to Rowan about the fire-breathers and asked if she could do the same. They then launched into a lively discussion about the limits and possibilities of her ability and normally, Yun would chide them for being so careless in a public setting but no one was paying any attention to them. Even if they were, the volume of different voices clashing and blending would drown them out.

Yun gave them a side-glare anyway. Once they reached the hotel, he was going to reinforce the rules in case they messed up again.

"I think it's starting," Injun said, swatting at Yun's forearm with an animated grin stretching across his face.

The entire audience must have also noticed that the lights in the tent were beginning to dim and a loud resounding cheer rose from the stands. The atmosphere of feverish excitement was highly infectious; even Elias couldn't stop grinning.

Suddenly, a lone spotlight shone onto the concentric stage in the centre of the tent, illuminating that one specific spot.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls!" Someone announced in a measured cadence.

A lanky foreign man strode across the stage and into the spotlight with a grin plastered on his cherry-red lips.

Needless to say, his outward appearance was striking.

His coiffed hair was dyed a bold shade of red that reminded them of arterial blood and he wore a stunning mask embellished with golden embroidery and tiny white gems that scintillated under the glare of the fluorescent lights. The coat he had donned swished around like a tail with every step he took, contributing to the dramatic flair.

He was exactly what a charismatic ringleader was expected to look like.

"On this fine day, we welcome you to the grand performance of the Vietnam National Circus!" the beguiling man declared in a sonorous voice that was coated with a faint but recognisable American accent and resonated across the span of the tent. From his blazer, he procured ten striped balls and began juggling them without taking his eyes off the crowd. "I am Nathan Russell—OW!"

He deliberately slowed down, changing the rhythm of the juggling which resulted in the balls dropping on his head one by one. The audience laughed at the comical situation, lapping the entertainment up. The ringleader had a certain magnetic pull that enraptured everyone—it was a telltale sign of a proficient orator.

“This circus is packed full of wonders to astound you!”

With a flourish of his gloved hands, the remaining spotlights sprung to life and swept across the arena, landing on the small band of musicians standing a little ways behind him. They were all adorned in a handsome red attire which the stylists had painstakingly curated so that they all matched. Their flamboyant uniforms were artfully inscribed with sequins and rhinestones that coruscated like a kaleidoscope beneath the spotlights, blinding to a few spectators’ eyes.

The crowd oohed-and-aahed just at the flaunting of glamorous outfits.

“Presenting the Vietnam National Circus—a place where your dreams and desires manifest right before your very eyes! Enjoy the show, folks!” With that, the ringmaster tossed a shimmery powder into the air and it cascaded back down like a shower of snow.

A thunderous ‘bang’ then rang out, eliciting airy gasps from the mystified audience, including the group of four who watched the scene unfold before their eyes with their mouth in a perfect 'o'. The powder that had landed on the ground had inexplicably erupted in a dense cloud of varying hues. The explosion sent up thick columns of smoke which rose heavenwards in gyrating spirals. When the smokescreen eventually receded, there was no sign of the ringmaster.

Elias turned to Yun with an exuberant beam, his face aglow. “Did you see that!? He just disappeared!”

The amber-eyed boy shook his head fondly at the other's behaviour and wondered when was the last time he had loosened up since according to his records, he was ridiculously pragmatic.

He hoped to see this side of Elias more often.

Carefree, unrestrained and giddy with joy.

If they were in a different world where they both met as ordinary teenagers, maybe that could happen.

But for now, he would treasure this ephemeral moment with a warm body pressing against his side and laughter and warmth surrounding them.


	5. Gem in the Rough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> our protagonists go to the circus and adopt two more clowns 🤡 (kinda literally)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ❖ the artist hinted on her insta that the story's political climate was loosely based off the events in 1912–1949. i set this story in the nineties before i knew this tidbit of info so idk how to feel about that 🙂
> 
> ❖ also, is anyone rlly interested in reading about politics and the whole overthrowing the government thing? bcoz i was planning to gloss over that mess with a few fight scenes thrown in, maybe a sprinkle of oc deaths; one or two rescue missions; and just write the happy ending (+smut) already
> 
> ❖ comment down below ヾ(^▽^*) (comments make me happier than kudos idk why)

Following the ringmaster’s mysterious disappearance, fortissimo music started blaring from all four corners of the tent through speakers. The audience’s attention shifted to the stairs lining the stage where several women in ritzy arabesque tops and fitted harem pants made of a sheer, diaphanous material pranced towards the centre with braceleted arms outstretched and shadowed eyes hooded.

Coils of gauzy pearl-tinted silk dropped from the ceiling, flaring out as they tumbled down, resembling mini glistening waterfalls.

The dancers wrapped their limbs around the billowing aerial silk and began their elaborate routine with astounding finesse. They manoeuvred seamlessly with the fabric to the rhythm of the music and mirrored each other’s movements without any flaws as if they were all controlled by the same puppeteer. When the music reached its climax, the ropes of silk snaked around the women’s legs—as if it had a mind of its own—and towed them up into the air.

Fixated on the dancers' every move, the audience gawked at their breathtaking performance as they soared through the air weightlessly like birds of paradise in flight; striking poses as they flew. The velvety opaline material flowed smoothly across the arena, bending and distorting to the will of their handlers. How the aerialists executed the complicated twists and turns of the choreography whilst being wrapped up in the silk as if they were no hindrance was beyond the four youths' comprehension.

The dancers spun and swayed as if they were laughter and light given movement and form.

Saying the audience entranced was an understatement.

Shutters of cameras in the background went off and Yun distantly wondered whether the photographers succeeded in capturing their beauty in still art.

An exotic sun-kissed girl who was particularly resplendent in her exquisite lapis-blue finery swung by the VIP stands on the flimsy material before relinquishing her hold on it and executing a somersault in mid-air. She landed gracefully on the railings separating the arena and the stands and straightened up.

She then gave an unimpressed Elias a coquettish wink, tossed a shimmery mesh scarf hanging from the waistline of her pants to a gobsmacked Yun and levelled Injun with a wanton smirk which could tempt even the most celibate of men to sin. If the dancer had left there and then, none of them would have minded but the brazen woman dared to lean towards Rowan and press a chaste kiss to her right cheek. In a whirl of jasmine perfume and sapphire silk, she leapt off the railings and let a team member whisk her away.

Rowan's face coloured instantaneously and a shiny red lipstick mark was now emblazoned on her cheek like some sort of _brand_.

Yun heard a distinct splintering sound and fearfully looked down to see the wooden railings in front of them had been fractured in Injun's crushing grip.

Outwardly, the blond was still the epitome of calmness with a poker face and perfect posture. However, the entirety of his figure was exuding an animosity resembling lethal acid—potent, burning and unquenchable. His mocha-brown eyes had also lost all traces of their earlier warmth and were reduced to dark pools of myrrh. If anyone bothered to look closely, they would notice based on his aura alone that he was downright _murderous._

Yun had an inkling that Injun was thinking about carving out the wretched woman's gullet with a scalpel.

He almost wanted to point out to Injun that the performer had flirted with everyone in the VIP booth and not only Rowan but that would be the same as signing his suicide note.

Ergo, he kept his mouth shut.

Beside him, Elias was trying to snap Rowan out of the weird funk she was in after being kissed by a very attractive stranger.

For the finishing act, the aerialists swung like oscillating pendulums to and fro before letting go of the fabric. One second they were tangled up in the wreathe of fabric and the next, they were plunging downwards in a cocoon of silk that unfurled as they went.

The crowd released a collective gasp, expecting the aerialists to free-fall and meet their impending doom. However, before they could hit the ground, their feet wound around the fabric, halting their descent. They then struck the final landing with their backs arched and hands splayed out whilst dangling from the coils of silk.

Everyone marvelled at the stunning sight for a second or two before bursting into raucous applause. The four of them joined in on the cheers of an encore—Injun's applause was considerably more subdued than the others—though they knew they wouldn't get one since the lights flickered out to prepare for the next segment.

When the lights turned back on, the dancers and the drapes of silk were gone. In their place was a suitcase. The occupants of the tent stared bemusedly at the luggage, waiting to be presented with another extravaganza. The suitcase jiggled. Then it began to shake, wobbling back and forth until it toppled onto its side. Mutterings and incoherent sounds of confusion broke out from the audience.

Its latches popped, and very slowly, the case began to open, seemingly by its own volition. A pair of heavy-lidded eyes peered out at the crowd, and then the case opened a little more to reveal a face—that of an adult man, who had somehow tucked himself into a suitcase no larger than Yun's torso, in an ecru leotard and stockings.

The crowd hollered and shrieked in disbelief which increased in decibels as the contortionist proceeded to unfold himself, limb by limb, and step out of the impossibly small case. He was spindly and as skinny as a beanpole—so alarmingly emaciated, in fact, that it looked as if his bones were about to break through his skin. He was a human exclamation point but carried himself with such dignity that no one could laugh at him. 

He studied the hooting sea of people dourly before taking a deep bow. The effeminate leotard-clad man then took a minute to demonstrate how his limbs could bend in all sorts of ways—twisting himself into a pretzel and folding his chest and limbs into grotesque angles and after more applause and more bows, that segment was over.

The next session involved a child no older than ten and a gangly suave magician in typical magician garb with a top hat and a black tuxedo. The child capered around the stage as the magician set up his props, garnering the audience's attention with his big guileless eyes and an unfaltering gummy grin that endeared him to everyone. Yun had to physically cover his mouth to hold back his squeals as the child assistant giggled under the heap of bunnies that the magician had pulled out of his top hat.

Most of the women were cooing and fawning over the truly adorable sight and even some men's imperturbable guise had disappeared to reveal faint smiles.

There was also a vanishing and sawing act afterwards with the child assistant dutifully playing his part and everything went off without a hitch. People enjoyed the innocent fan service of a precocious kid going along with the magician's every whim and being absolutely lovable doing almost anything.

When their session ended, many spectators expressed their disappointment openly but brightened up when the child turned back to give them a little charming wave which was a mere waggle of his fingers. Still boisterously clapping after the magician-assistant duo disappeared, the crowd took a minute or two to simmer down when the lights began sweeping across the arena, indicating the start of another captivating performance.

Yun found himself to be wholly unprepared for the orotund warbling note that reverberated in the tent.

It was puissant, mellifluous and inviting like a siren's call, luring every listener to fall into a trance.

_They had found Shin Yoona._

She was singing.

They looked down at the stage where stood an elfin East-Asian woman with straight black hair plaited into a chignon bun. She crooned the words to a slow poignant song that was ideal for a waltz, ensnaring everyone in the rise-and-fall of her lyrical voice.

𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑖 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 // 𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑎 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡 𝑖 𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑒 

Falling into a dream-like reverie, Yun hummed idly along to the tune, unaware of the lilac-haired boy beside him gazing at him with half-lidded eyes.

The crowd spoke in hushed tones as they pointed up at the two adjacent podiums above. Two figures standing respectively on each podium were cloaked in a swathe of shadows, their silhouettes barely visible. When the spotlight swept towards them, everyone could discern that one was a man and the other a woman. The single light source was harsh and dazzling compared to their identical bejewelled red leotards.

𝑖 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑚𝑒 // 𝑠𝑜 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝 𝑠𝑎𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑢𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑑

They watched as the woman walked away from the edge of the podium, her dainty footfalls corresponding with every pitch of the act’s orchestral score.

The male, on the other hand, sprung off the platform as nimble as a cat—everyone took a sharp intake of air—and gripped onto the trapeze bar hanging down a few feet away from him. He was then lifted higher into the air; the music was still low, developing gently into something fast-paced with his ascent.

𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑚 𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 // 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑠 // 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑚𝑒

The spotlight shifted away from the man and towards the woman who had already scaled the ladder up to her metal ring and was now swinging lazily on it.

By the time the spotlight returned to the man, he had built up a steady momentum with the adagio of the strings and was swaying from the metal bar.

His partner had effortlessly transitioned to a different position in the meantime and was now hanging upside-down from the circular ring; her golden-streaked hair concealed her face as she dangled from her sole support. With her legs locked tightly around the thin metal of the hoop, she faced the man as his arc inched closer and closer with every swing.

𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢’𝑟𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑦 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡 // 𝑠𝑜 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝 𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑓 𝑖 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒 // 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢’𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑦

The duo finally connected when the crescendo arrived. The woman wrapped her slender fingers around the man’s forearms as they sailed through the air together. They moved as one before separating only to intertwine their limbs at every arc.

They repeated the process for a couple more times, portraying a disorienting image for the viewers. Their bodies told a story; of how two beings chased each other endlessly—back and forth—as they reunited and were torn apart again through their flights.

𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑓 𝑤𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑠 // 𝑠𝑎𝑦 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑒 // 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝 𝑢𝑠 𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡 // 𝑦𝑜𝑢’𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑖 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑

The sepulchral effect was aided by the fluctuating tempo and the limited light which rendered even the keenest eyesight useless as no one could distinguish who was the male or the female. The underlying anguish and yearning colouring the vocalist's symphonious voice only enhanced the experience of witnessing the sentimental performance. It was as though two takes of the same tale were being told tonight—the singer's and the performers'. One through sound and the other through motion.

A palpable sense of loss hung heavy in the atmosphere and everyone held their breath, afraid that the slightest of movements would shatter the magic.

𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑢𝑝 𝑡𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑢𝑝 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑒 // 𝑛𝑜 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑎𝑦 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑒 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 // 𝑠𝑜 𝑤ℎ𝑦 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑤𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑠 // 𝑚𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠 // 𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡

No one could keep their eyes off of them. They looked on as the trapeze artists sent each other drifting across the tent, spinning in meandering circles in their pendulum trajectories with necks bared and eyes closed.

How strong must they be able to do this? To be able to contort their bodies into shapes which narrated a tale that even words could not do justice. Every movement was swift and sharp like a polished blade cleaving the air yet delicate and fluid like a foamy wave retreating into the still ocean.

It was art in one of its many, _many_ forms.

𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑖 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑦𝑜𝑢 // 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑖 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑦𝑜𝑢 // 𝑠𝑜 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 // 𝑖𝑡 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙𝑠 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒, 𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 // 𝑠𝑎𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒

For the grand finale, they hurtled down from their platforms again and collided in a long-awaited embrace in the centre of the arena. The woman’s slender figure pressed up against the man’s lithe one and their entwined limbs fused together into a single shapeless mass like a perfect mould.

They remained airborne in the same position for a few seconds with the male’s hand gripping the trapeze bar and the female’s arm slinging around the metal ring.

𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑖 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 // 𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑎 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡 𝑖 𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑒 // 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑖 𝑐𝑎𝑛’𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 // 𝑤𝑒’𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑎𝑛𝑑 // 𝑚𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑑

Once the last notes tapered off, the crowd was unmoving and dead silent. But like a rising crescendo, the varied sounds from the crowd built up quickly into an orchestra of raucous whooping and whistling. Straining his ears, Yun could hear many calling out their praises to the two acrobats through the tumultuous applause.

Even the normally mild-mannered Injun was screeching in exhilaration at a frequency only dolphins could pick up on. It had been too long since Yun had seen Injun break his composure in public so he allowed him to have his moment at the expense of his eardrums.

Of course, none of them had forgotten about the singer. Some flung satin ribbons and wildflowers at the female who thanked them profusely with a healthy red flush saturating her cheeks.

"Hey."

Elias' baritone voice brought him out of his awe-induced stupor and Yun peered up at him to see concern writ large over his countenance.

Something lodged in Yun's throat at the close-up view of Elias' chatoyant eyes that alternated between crimson and maroon underneath the crepuscular lights.

He really was far too beautiful for Yun's poor stuttering heart.

Gossamery strands of hair fell delicately from Elias' crown of lilac silver that had been bundled up into a low braid instead of his customary high ponytail. This new hairstyle made him look softer, younger and more empyreal somehow. Like a snow nymph that lurked amongst humans; like a burst of magic in a world of mundane; a riot of colours in a world of sepia; a spark of thrill in a world of monotone.

Yun could come up with all sorts of grandiloquent metaphors to describe the boy before him and still fail to describe just how much he ached to have him.

Back before the purging of the aristocrats, Elias had always been the cynosure of all eyes. Girls and even a handful of men constantly clamoured for his attention and Yun would call them desperate and pathetic if he weren't the same as them. With his Elysian looks on top of his family's prestige, the idea of harems vying for the firstborn Everstied's attention was not far-fetched at all.

And that thought left a bitter, rancid aftertaste in Yun's mouth.

"What is it?" Yun croaked.

"You're crying," Elias whispered and his hand twitched in his lap as if he intended to reach up and wipe his tears for him.

Bewildered, Yun brought his hand up to cheek and his fingertips came away glistening with teardrops.

"Oh," said Yun, staring at the evidence right before him. "I didn't even know."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Elias said in a careful tone.

Letting out a brief laugh, Yun lowered his head bashfully. "It's nothing, really. It's kind of dumb that I got all emotional...the song just-"

 _The song spoke to me._ Went unsaid.

"Yun."

The boy looked up upon hearing his name and ruby met topaz in a single, heated gaze.

"You don't need to be afraid of me calling you a crybaby," Elias chuckled, the sterling silver piercings decorating his helix caught the light when he angled his head to the side in bemusement. "I think everyone here cried a little because they were overwhelmed." He then looked torn between being disquieted and impassive. "It's just that you looked sad too."

"I see." Yun mustered a wan smile, the tight ball of nerves in his chest unfurled to be replaced by a flood of warmth. "I just remembered something, that's all."

Elias nodded in understanding and his eyes softened around the edges, looking a tad wistful as if he had been pulled into a faded memory. "So did I."

And at that moment, Yun felt as if he had been allowed a glimpse through a window into Elias' mind. They might have come to a consensus with Elias joining Yun's regime but they haven't really been on the same wavelength before.

Trading soft smiles, the two turned back to watch the last of the riveting acts with their shoulders slightly pressed together.

They both took comfort in the warmth emanating from each other.

Finally, the circus drew to a close. There were garbled despondent noises from all around and Rowan even whined petulantly.

The ringmaster then reappeared in the centre of the stage with a swirl of his baton, an undulating cloud of coloured smoke accompanying his arrival. He was clearly fond of melodrama. The performers joined the scarlet-haired man on the stage in flocks. They flanked his side as the entire circus troupe curtsied or bowed, nearly smothered by the satin bows and sparkly confetti raining down on them.

The circus was officially declared over when the troupe began making their way backstage.

In a flurry of movements, the surrounding people rose to their feet and headed to the exit, jostling one another to escape the claustrophobia-inducing enclosure of the tent after sitting still for two whole hours.

"That was so cool!" Rowan exclaimed, her curls bouncing along with her head movements as if her enthusiasm reached right down to her hair follicles. "Did you see them swing here and swing there as if they weighed nothing? That's like impressive as hell! They have insane control over their abdominal muscles and it must have taken them years to build up their core and-"

Elias regarded her with a mixture of fondness and bemusement. "Yes, we get it, Ro. It was very awe-inspiring."

"What's your favourite part of the show?" Yun asked, gaze following the last remaining people trickling out. They had to wait until the tent had been emptied out before they could visit the backstage. Some of the attendants were still busy ushering people out.

"The one with the firebreathers and animal trainers was the best for me," Elias said.

"The first act. The dancers were amazing," Rowan said truthfully, lifting her hand to her cheek where the lipstick mark was and smearing it slightly with the pads of her fingers.

Yun glanced to his side and saw Injun flexing his jaws with a storm brewing in his eyes.

"I think the exotic one is into you. You know, the one who kissed you," Elias said, gaze darting towards Injun knowingly. If he was planning to elicit a reaction from the blond, it was working.

"That doesn't matter," Rowan said with a rueful smile, her grin fading faster than wisps of smoke, "it's not like I'm gonna see her again and even if I do, it doesn't feel right. I can't let myself move on this quickly."

"Why not?" Injun said tersely. It was the first thing he said since the end of the performance. Elias shot him a warning look out of the corner of his eyes which was deflected easily.

Yun sank down in his seat, feeling like this was not going to end well.

Unaware of the slight bitterness lacing Injun's tone, Rowan replied coldly, "You expect me to move on from my girlfriend of five years who was killed literally two days ago?"

His blood turned to ice once he registered her statement. At a loss for words, Yun stared at Rowan, horrified. His men were going to seek her out a week ago but she had gone into hiding and it was almost impossible to trace her whereabouts. They had gotten lucky when two days ago, her magical signature had flared up to the point where all magic-users in a ten-mile radius could sense it.

Yun and Injun had immediately dispatched their troops to scout the area once they sensed the abnormality of the signature. It was a roiling, churning mess—stricken with terror, agony and grief. Those turbulent emotions could only lead to a magical outburst which put the user at risk of their nature being discovered and by extension, the rest of the magical community.

He knew something had disturbed the girl's mental state greatly but he had never imagined it was to this devastating extent.

That...explained a lot.

Yun turned to Injun. _'You might as well get over your crush on her now.'_

As if he could read his thoughts, Injun gave him a meaningful look but said nothing more.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Yun said sincerely, leaning forward since Elias was blocking his view of her. Her visage was a blank slate but her hands were afflicted with violent tremors and she had clasped them together to stop them. But to no avail.

Elias narrowed his eyes at them, wordlessly them to drop the topic. _Now_.

As much as Elias liked to claim he and Rowan could barely count as allies, much less mutual friends, Yun could see that he cared for her in an almost familial manner. It was as if he was unconsciously taking on the role of Rowan's surrogate brother with the way he bristled at her ribbing, nagged at her, tussled with her yet came to her rescue in times like this.

It was definitely heart-warming to see him express his care for someone in true Elias fashion—with small, subtle gestures and a lot of aggressive affection—but Yun also couldn't help but wonder how Rowan managed to instil this protective nature in the Everstied. From what he remembered, he was so self-involved to the point of being apathetic to most people's misfortune.

Something changed him. And as much as he liked Rowan now, Yun fervently hoped it wasn't her that changed Elias.

He wasn't sure what he would do with the knowledge that ten years of him knowing Elias amounted to nothing compared to two days of Rowan knowing Elias.

* * *

They were led to a side entrance where its wall-like facade gave way to a big, flimsy tent. An attendant with a comically bulbous nose escorted them through the opening and they traipsed across the sandy ground and crossed the tent's threshold. The sideshow was a low-ceilinged maze of canvas—a single, dramatically torchlit aisle that took sharp turns every twenty or thirty feet so that at every corner, they were confronted by a group of performers.

The group of five navigated through the lively chaos of the troupe members unwinding after a long night of entertaining the public. At a corner nearest to the opening, the beauteous dancers were lounging on foldable couches with their glitzy veils and headdresses lying scattered at their feet. They twittered like woodland birds in rapid-fire Vietnamese and smothered their twinkling laughter behind elegant hands laden with gilded bands, pausing only when they caught sight of the four youths.

Each and every one of them stilled. With the women's sharp kohl-rimmed eyes trained on them, the four of them picked up the pace, feeling far too much like trespassers despite having an official staff leading them.

Moving past the dancers, Yun noticed the gorgeous pair of acrobats mingling with flamboyantly-dressed clowns. From afar, the acrobats had looked like untouchable entities—ones that were destined to soar above humankind and never walk amongst them—so to see them seamlessly blending in with others was rather bizarre. 

The four newcomers were caught in a mesmerising orbit whilst watching these otherworldly beings at a safe distance. It was as if they stumbled upon another world—a world which they were only allowed a peek of as they strode past the stylists rearranging their cosmetics, the musicians tuning their instruments and the fire breathers guffawing at each other's jokes in thinly veiled wonder.

Injun even nearly tripped over a glass ball that a fortune teller was polishing in his distracted state and his loud yelp shattered their reverie, dragging them back to reality. Cowering beneath the clairvoyant's dirty glare, Injun mumbled a hasty apology before darting to Rowan's side and using her as a temporary shield.

They eventually reached the singer's private room without encountering any more mishaps. The attendant knocked on the door and waited for a "come in!" to sound out before opening the door to admit them in. It was a humble room cluttered with vanity dressers, bouquets of flowers and gowns haphazardously thrown over chairs or lying scattered on the ground in pools of satin and silk.

In the middle of the organised mess stood the willowy singer in all of her glory.

Shin Yoona was fairly unassuming now that they were seeing her in full clarity. Yun had been expecting the magic-user to be the personification of desire with sin dripping off rosebud lips, come-hither eyes that would flutter their lashes coyly at you and a voluptuous figure most women would kill to have. Her powers were coined "Siren's Call" for a reason so, in other words, she had an innate seduction ability.

Contrary to his expectations, she had beady eyes and a cleft chin with chubby cheeks which were flushed from the night's excitement. The baby hair around her temples was threaded with sweat and glitter, the make-up on her lids was faded and smeared as though she had taken it off in one swipe and the hem of her ankle-length empire dress was stained brown from being dragged through sand and dirt. In fact, she would have been a sorry sight if not for the benign smile she wore that made her quite lovely to look at.

Seeing her in person was somewhat underwhelming. She didn't look like the textbook definition of femme fatale that was for sure.

However, she did seem to be beautiful in the sense that you would think of wildflowers growing along the roadside, winter nights and decadent hot cocoa by the hearth, a homely cottage in the heart of the woods, spreading ripples in a clear pond and a house full of love and warmth and children's laughter.

Whoever she was and whatever she was capable of, it didn't matter because Yun instantly felt _safe_ around her. And he didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

"Hello," the woman spoke in a voice as rich as Bourbon, deeper than her singing voice but no less tuneful, "I take it that you're the visitors from Anwei."

"That's right," Rowan answered on their behalf, the day-old tension in her rigid stance seeping out of her the instant she was in the presence of another woman. Her smile came easily, more easily than it had ever done for her three male companions, "We're here to request for your help and we didn't want to impose on your time but it's an urgent matter and-"

Yoona held up a delicate hand and Rowan paused in the middle of her nervous rambling.

"You're not imposing at all so please, be at ease." The flash of her canine teeth between the crevices of her smiling lips should have been unsettling but it made her all-the-more endearing. "I'll listen to what you have to say as long as you're courteous about it."

Rowan smiled, sheepish but clearly at ease around her. "Thank you, miss."

The singer snorted inelegantly though it sounded soft and fond instead of derisive, coming from her. "Please, call me Yoona. I can't be more than three or four years older than you lot." She then urged them to take a seat on the three tufted stools placed in front of a clothing rack.

"Sorry about the mess. It's a temporary set-up so I'm afraid we didn't bother to make it look more...inhabitable," Yoona said airily, handing over cups of fragrant tea she had seemingly procured from nowhere. Elias accepted the tea with an awkward nod of gratitude but thankfully didn't fumble with the rest of the cups as he passed them over to Injun.

"Oh, don't worry about it, we're not here for long anyway," Injun spoke up, sipping the piping hot tea and making a pitiful "eep" sound when he scalded his tastebuds. Yun took over for the blond as he coughed into his hand with tears in his eyes.

"We're here on behalf of your cousin, Shin Minji, she told us about your...ability," Yun said, calmly swirling his cup of tea in his hand.

Yoona's deferential smile grew strained and a sliver of worry revealed itself on her countenance. "Is she alright? How is she?"

"She's safe," said Injun, wiping his tears. If he was surprised that Yoona wasn't visibly upset about them knowing her true nature, he didn't show it. "She's a capable fighter, one of our best actually, so you don't need to worry about her. She's perfectly fine but we're not here to talk about her." 

An inaudible sigh of relief left her lips. "That's good to hear. So then, what are you here for? She told you that I'm a magic-user, right? Do you need my help for the revolution?"

"Oh good, you more or less know about our situation. Minji must have updated you," Yun said, smiling, "well, this makes things easier for us."

Cutting to the chase, Injun said, "Siren's Call will be very useful in gathering intel. You can coax any information out of enemy spies with that ability of yours and if you agree to join us, we can discuss more later on about the other background work you'll be doing."

"Well, I do owe Minji a favour..." Yoona stared down at the cup in her hand with a rueful smile. "And I wanted to return to Anwei for years." She then appeared to steel her resolve and looked up at them with conviction evident in the set of her jaws and the resolute nod she gave them. "You came at the right time. I was going to leave the circus within the week to move to another state. Today was my last performance. If you had arrived a few days late, I would have been long gone and speaking from experience, it would be impossible for you to track me down."

Rowan stared at her, stunned. "So you're—you're agreeing to this? You'll actually come back with us?" She chanced a look at Elias and they traded bemused looks. That was easier than they had expected. It took Yun and Injun twice as fast to convince her compared to Elias and Rowan.

Yoona pursed her lips, mulling over her decision. "I will if you meet my conditions."

"Name your price." Yun leaned forward. His citrine eyes harboured a predatory glint, which Elias had seen during their first meeting, as he appraised the woman over the rim of his teacup. "If it's reasonable-"

"I'm not asking for money, I don't take hand-outs," said Yoona.

Elias drank his tea serenely from the sidelines, content to sit this one out.

Yun blinked owlishly. "Oh, then what-?"

"Let me bring my son along. Have someone keep an eye on him while I go out and do whatever work you have for me. I'm not asking you to feed him or clothe him. I'll handle all of that. Just...be with him while I'm gone. I was planning to leave for another state with him but since I'm returning to Anwei, I'll still have to bring him along."

"I don't think staying in Anwei will be safe for your son," Injun said tentatively.

"I don't have any other choice. We only have each other," Yoona said with a bitter twist of her lips. "I hate breaking my promises just as much as I hate being separated from my son. I owe my life to Minji and I'm ready to repay my debt no matter what."

A fraught silence blanketed the occupants of the room immediately afterwards.

"Wow," Rowan breathed, "you're a remarkable woman."

Cheeks colouring, Yoona waved her off. "Nonsense, this is just the right thing to do."

"But not a lot of people do the right thing," Yun said in an undertone, his gaze lowering.

No one really knew how to respond to that.

* * *

"This is your son?" Elias said, catching the eye of the magician's assistant clinging to Yoona's arm. The boy had shaggy brown hair with an impish face, sun-kissed skin and a smattering of freckles over the bridge of his nose. He looked nothing like the pale, delicate-looking Yoona and Yun was beginning to doubt that they were related.

"He's adopted," Yoona clarified, placing a steadying hand on the boy's back, her motherly affection for him was as clear as day to everyone else. She had gone off to fetch him after their conversation had been wrapped up and needless to say, the four friends were surprised to discover that the darling of the circus was Yoona's foster son. "His parents passed away after triggering an uncleared landmine when he was four. He's nine now."

"Ten," the boy said, "I'm almost ten."

"Yes, you certainly are a big boy now," Yoona said, amused. She turned back to them with a smile. "His name is Tuan."

"Hey there," Yun chirped, stooping down to be at eye-level with Tuan. The boy merely spared him a glance before redirecting his attention back to Injun. For some reason, he had been transfixed by the Chinese male ever since he had entered the room.

They then heard him whisper, "Pretty..."

"Sorry, did you say something?" Injun asked sweetly, smiling down at the boy and worsening his flush.

"Marry me," the boy said with a straight face and scarlet cheeks.

Yun physically reeled back from shock and Elias had to steady him before he could fall back and crack his skull open. Injun looked like he was about to drop into a dead faint, Yoona looked appropriately scandalised and apologetic whereas Rowan accidentally shattered the teacup in her hand. Keyword: _accidentally_.

"What did you say, kid?" Rowan said through gritted teeth, unfazed by the porcelain shards piercing through her now bloodied palm.

Tuan regarded her with an imperious jut of his chin. "I'm not talking to you. I was talking to the pretty fairy."

"Well _I'm_ talking to you right now and I'm asking you what you just said," Rowan snapped, looking ready to dropkick a ten-year-old boy out of a misplaced sense of jealousy.

 _'I should probably stop her before she does that,'_ Yun thought faintly, still slumped against Elias' chest.

"Oh dear," Yoona lamented, addressing a dumbfounded Injun, "I'm truly sorry. I'm sure it was just a joke but if it made you uncomfortable-"

"I'm not joking!" Tuan said, still stuck in a glaring match with Rowan. "He's pretty and he's mine!"

"Jun's pretty, alright," Rowan snarled, baring her teeth at Tuan as a thin trail of smoke and flinty sparks escaped from her mouth. "But he sure as hell ain't _yours_."

"Rowan!" Elias yelled at the brunette.

Yun wasn't sure if he was admonishing her for using an expletive in front of a kid or getting worked up over a kid's innocent, harmless crush or both.

"SHUT UP, YOU HAG! HE'S MINE, HE'S MINE, HE'S MINE!" Tuan began screeching and stomping his foot against the ground like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum. Wasn't he already ten?

Rowan looked more and more murderous by the second. And to think that one hour ago, she was as just smitten with the boy as the other female spectators were. The angelic act Tuan had put on for the crowd fell apart the instant the curtains were drawn and the show was declared over.

Yun cringed and covered his ears with his hands as Rowan and Tuan dissolved into an incoherent verbal brawl, shouting at each other at the top of their lungs with Yoona trying to placate them, Injun watching on in horror and Elias clinging onto Yun a little tighter.

God, this situation was spiralling out of hand. Their plans were falling apart because a kid apparently had bad taste and decided to fall for Injun of all fucking people and now Rowan was going to murder a kid with her bare hands with said kid's mother in the same room as them and fuck, Yun really needed a drink.

ASAP.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ❖ if it isn't clear yet, the way elias treats rowan as if she's his sister stems from his guilt of failing as a brother to his actual sister. since he has trust issues, it doesn't make sense for him to become attached to someone so easily. it will be more understandable if he was projecting his insecurities/regrets on rowan and hence, treating her better than he'd normally treat a stranger. BUT liking someone and trusting them are still two different matters. rowan has earned his respect/affection but not his loyalty/trust

**Author's Note:**

> A͢G͢E͢S͢
> 
> tuan: 10  
> mia: 18  
> yun: 18  
> elias: 19  
> injun: 19  
> rowan: 20  
> yoona: 22  
> celine: 24


End file.
